India invited to attend international conference on Libya

From K Mammen Mathew
Berlin, Aug 25 (PTI) India is among a group of countries
invited to attend an international conference on Libya, which
French President Nicolas Sarkozy will host in Paris next week
to discuss the future of the north African nation after the
overthrow of the Muammar Gaddafi regime.
The conference of the "friends of Libya" is intended to
speed up humanitarian aid, medical supplies, rehabilitation
and other immediate assistance for the war-torn nation as well
as to work out a long-term plan for the reconstruction of a
"new independent Libya", Sarkozy said after talks with Mahmoud
Jibril, head of the Libyan National Transitional Council.
A top priority for the conference is to clear the way for
releasing the frozen wealth of Gaddafi and his clans in bank
accounts abroad to meet the country's immediate needs, to
support the transitional government and to finance the
country's reconstruction as a democratic nation.
"There is no need at all for us to mobilise large funds",
Sarkozy said.
"We only have to make available to the Libyan people the
money from the frozen accounts of Gaddafi and his clans."
Besides the Libya contact group which comprised mainly of
nations which participated in a six-month military operation
in support of the rebel forces seeking to overthrow the
Gaddafi regime, India, China, Russia, Brazil and South Africa,
which stayed out of the conflict, will also be invited,
Sarkozy said.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will also attend the
conference.
Sarkozy said he will organise the conference jointly with
British Prime Minister David Cameron, his closest ally in
launching the UN-authorised military campaign to enforce a
"no-fly zone" over Libya.