Libya rebels get $15bn boost as Gaddafi vows to continue fight

Paris, Friday

World leaders unblocked $15 billion in funds to help Libya’s victorious rebels rebuild their shattered country as fugitive strongman Muammar Gaddafi called for guerilla warfare.

Forty-two years to the day since Gaddafi took power in a coup, senior envoys from more than 60 countries Thursday met the leaders of the revolution that overthrew him to endorse the fledgling regime and offer practical support.

But in the meeting in Paris, they also put the leaders of the rebels’ National Transitional Council (NTC) on notice to pursue a path of reconciliation, even as Gaddafi issued a message of defiance from his desert hiding place.

“Prepare yourselves for a gang and guerrilla war, for urban warfare and popular resistance in every town... to defeat the enemy everywhere,” he said in an audio tape aired on Arab satellite television.

The Paris guestlist was a victory in itself for the NTC, as once sceptical Russia and China and Libya’s reluctant neighbour Algeria agreed to back the new administration.

French President Nicholas Sarkozy, the rebels’ most prominent backer from the outset, announced that billions in Libyan assets frozen abroad would now be unblocked.

“Around $15 billion have been immediately unfrozen... we want to give back to the Libyans the money that was frozen and that was stolen from them,” he said.

Speaking alongside the rebel leaders, Sarkozy urged the NTC to begin a “process of reconciliation and forgiveness.”

NTC president Mustafa Abdel Jalil said the Libyan people “proved their courage and their determination” in their fight to topple Gaddafi but he also pleaded for stability.

“Now everything is in your hands,” he said in a message to the Libyan people. “It’s up to you to accomplish what we promised: stability, peace and reconciliation.”

The rebels have issued an ultimatum for Gaddafi and his followers to surrender, and have amassed troops around his hometown of Sirte for a final battle.

At the Paris conference, Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance would continue its six-month operation in Libya for as long as the civilian population was in danger.

In Tripoli, rebel commander Abdullah Naqir announced the creation of the council of Tripoli’s revolutionaries to defend the capital, restore order and hunt down Gaddafi loyalists.

While the mood in Paris was upbeat, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sounded a note of caution, urging the rebels to beware of extremism in their own ranks and prevent weapons from falling into the wrong hands. (AFP)