International group tells Gadhafi to go

DOHA, Qatar, April 13 (UPI) -- Libyan strongman Moammar Gahdafi should quit immediately, an international conference meeting in Qatar declared Wednesday.

Qatar's crown prince, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, read the closing statement of the new Libyan Contact Group in Doha, the BBC reported.

The group demanded "an immediate end to all attacks against civilians, and for Gadhafi and his regime to pull back all regime forces from Libyan cities they have forcibly entered, occupied or besieged."

It also said "Gadhafi's continued presence would threaten any resolution of the crisis" and "called on all Libyans who wanted to see a process of political transition to urge Gadhafi to step down."

Earlier, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said as many as 3.6 million Libyans may need international aid.

Opening the meeting in Doha, Ban said only 39 percent of the $310 million the U.N. requested in emergency funding has been received, which is "clearly insufficient," CNN reported.

"On average, 2,700 people cross to Tunisia and Egypt every day. Roughly 330,000 people have been internally displaced," he said.

Before the meeting, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the situation was "unpredictable" as he praised NATO airstrikes for saving "thousands of lives."

The Qatar talks come amid reports of a worsening humanitarian crisis in the rebel-held city of Misurata, where Gadhafi's forces continued to attack. Misurata has been under siege for more than six weeks.

Rebel envoys were to meet in Doha with the contact group, which includes European and Arab countries, the United States and international organizations.

Speaking to the BBC while traveling to Qatar, Hague said, "Are we able to say which week these things will come to an end? Of course not, because it is a fast-moving and unpredictable situation. But I think it is clear the Gadhafi regime has no future. ... The question is how and when it unravels."

He said the effect of NATO air strikes so far shouldn't be underestimated.

"Thousands of lives have been saved in places like Benghazi and possibly in Misurata," he said. "We would now be looking at a pariah state completely under the control of Col. Gadhafi, destabilizing an already unstable Middle East, if we had not taken the action we have taken."

Former Libyan Foreign Minister Musa Kusa, who defected to Britain last month, is expected to attend the talks, British officials said. He is expected to meet rebels and the Qatari government on the sidelines, providing "insights" on the situation in Libya, officials said.

However, leaders of the rebel National Transitional Council said they did not intend to meet with Kusa during the meeting.

"We are sending a delegation to Doha [Qatar] solely to meet with the contact group, but it's not part of the agenda to meet with Kusa," National Transitional Council spokesman Abdul Hafidh Ghoga told reporters in Benghazi, Libya, the rebels' headquarters. "It's not something rejected or accepted."

Kusa, who also headed Libya's domestic and foreign intelligence agency, is a "longtime friend" of the Gadhafi regime, Gadhafi Social Affairs Minister Ibrahim el-Sharif told The Wall Street Journal. Among other things, Kusa is being questioned about the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in which 270 people died.

Hague said Kusa went to Britain of his own accord and hasn't been arrested, so he could attend the meeting, the BBC reported.

"We behave according to the law," Hague said. "The matter of arrests is for prosecuting authorities and police; that is not for ministers to decide."

Qatar, France, Italy and the Maldives recognize the National Transitional Council as the legitimate government of Libya.

The rebels said they'd received assistance offers from 30 countries that don't formally recognize them, including the United States and Britain.