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G8: Pressure on Ghadafi, cash for reforms

U.S. President Barack Obama (C) shakes hands with French President Nicolas Sarkozy as Russian President Dmitry Medvedev looks on as they arrive at the G8 Summit in Deauville, France, May 26, 2011. UPI
U.S. President Barack Obama (C) shakes hands with French President Nicolas Sarkozy as Russian President Dmitry Medvedev looks on as they arrive at the G8 Summit in Deauville, France, May 26, 2011. UPI | License Photo

DEAUVILLE, France, May 27 (UPI) -- World leaders meeting in France on Friday called on Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to step down and promised $20 billion in aid to Tunisia and Egypt and possibly billions more for Arab Spring countries that steer a similar reform course.

"Gadhafi and the Libyan government have failed to fulfill their responsibility to protect the Libyan population and have lost all legitimacy," read a communique issued by leaders at the end of the Group of Eight summit in Deauville, France. "He has no future in a free, democratic Libya. He must go."

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The strongly worded statement was backed by Russia, which had in the past weeks criticized the NATO military campaign launched in Libya.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday at a news conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy that the safety of Libyan civilians couldn't be ensured as long as Gadhafi remained in the country.

"We are joined in resolve to finish the job," he said, with a nodding Sarkozy standing beside him.

Similar to the Marshall Plan that helped Germany into a boom democracy after World War II, G8 leaders launched a partnership for North Africa and the Middle East pledges billions of aid for those countries who throw out their dictators and open up for reform.

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They pledged some $20 billion in loans and grants for Tunisia and Egypt, countries with free elections coming up after leaders there had to step down following massive pro-democracy demonstrations.

Aid money for countries that open up during the Arab Spring, "would ensure that the democratic transition is accompanied by economic growth which can provide more opportunities for all the people, particularly the young people, in the region," Obama said Friday.

Other countries could hope for aid if they follow the course taken by Egypt and Tunisia, the leaders indicated, saying they "strongly support the aspirations of the Arab Spring as well as those of the Iranian people."

Apart from Syria, uprisings have gripped Yemen and Bahrain. Several other leaders in the region have vowed to introduce reforms in an obvious bid to prevent demonstrations.

"The changes under way in the Middle East and North Africa are historic and have the potential to open the door to the kind of transformation that occurred in Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall," they said in a statement.

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