Friday, July 15, 2011

Military action against Gaddafi to intensify, Hague says

Military action against Muammar Gaddafi's regime will be intensifed while a UN envoy presses for negotiations to end the civil war in Libya, Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague said.

Hague said the UN secretary-general's special envoy to Libya, Abdul Elah Al-Khatib, would be authorised to present terms for Gaddafi to leave power.

"He has taken a central role in this contact group meeting and we see him as the channel for negotiations and for political settlement, while the military pressure on the regime will continue to intensify," Hague said in an interview with Reuters during an international Libya contact group meeting in Istanbul.