Ahead of an international meeting in Rome Thursday on the way forward in Libya, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said NATO's air campaign was making progress but he reiterated that a political solution was needed to end the conflict.

"I'm definitely in favour of taking all necessary measures to put the maximum pressure on the Kadhafi regime with the aim to protect civilians in Libya," he said.

"I do believe that it would be protection of civilians in Libya if Kadhafi was forced to step down.

"And in that respect I think it would be helpful to make sure that the oposition can be financed properly," he said.

Global powers meet in Rome Thursday to find ways to help finance the rebels and discuss possible diplomatic solutions to the conflict amid a stalemate in the fighting.

Qatar has proposed helping the rebels market oil from the fields they control but a senior European diplomat said "there are still legal uncertainties" over ownership.

There is a similar question mark over whether billions of euros (dollars) in regime assets seized abroad can be handed over to Kadhafi's opponents.

Asked about Italian calls for NATO to set a deadline to its operation, Rasmussen said the mission would end once Kadhafi stops attacking civilians, sends his troops back to barracks and gives safe passage to humanitarian aid.

"When these objectives are met then the mission is accomplished," he said, adding that allies agreed on that line at meeting of foreign ministers in Berlin last month and shared a "strong desire" to finish the job.

"I'm not able to fix a date when the three objectives will be fulfilled but these objectives guide our operations."

As NATO military chiefs met in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss progress in the air war, Rasmussen told reporters the alliance was "steadily degrading" Kadhafi forces' ability to attack civilians.

NATO aircraft have flown more than 5,000 sorties at a rate of more than 1,000 a week since the alliance took over the mission from a coalition led by the United States, Britain and France on March 31, he said.

One month after NATO officials said that 30 percent of Kadhafi's military capacity was destroyed, Rasmussen said he was unable to give an updated figure but insisted progress was being made "every day" and that the regime was "much weaker now than it was when our operation started."

earlier related report
France moots June conference on Mideast peace
Paris (AFP) May 4, 2011 - France may turn a donors' conference on a future Palestinian state set for June into a political meeting to relaunch the stalled Middle East peace process, Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Wednesday.

"Our idea would be to use the donors' conference meeting at the end of June to hold a real political conference and restart the dialogue," Juppe told the French parliament's foreign affairs committee.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks in Paris on Thursday.

"How much will we be able to get him to evolve? You know the man, his character, his determination," Juppe said of Netanyahu, playing down the chances of a rapid breakthrough in the peace process.

Netanyahu is visiting Paris and London to counter Palestinian plans to seek United Nations recognition of their statehood, as peace talks remain mired in a stalemate over the issue of Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land.

Negotiations between the two sides have been on hold since late September, when a 10-month, partial Israeli settlement freeze expired and Netanyahu refused to renew it, allowing new developments to begin.

"On the American side, there are today few initiatives," Juppe said.

"Our idea is to try a last resort initiative, so that, in the month of September, when the question of recognising (a Palestinian state) is raised, we can say we tried everything."

Sarkozy implied in an interview with L'Express news weekly on Wednesday that France could recognise a Palestinian state later this year if the peace process cannot be restarted.

"If the peace process resumes during the summer, France will say that you have to leave the protagonists to talk without forcing the calendar," Sarkozy told the news weekly.

"If, on the other hand, the peace process is still a dead letter in September, France will assume its responsibilities on the central issue of recognising a Palestinian state."

The Palestinians have insisted they will not talk while Israel builds on land they want for a future state, and Israel has attracted fierce international criticism for its settlement policy.

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