Italy will provide Libya's rebels with up to 400 million euros ($586.1 million) of cash and fuel aid backed by frozen Libyan assets, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said on Thursday.
"Italy is committed to provide an amount of money, about 300 to 400 million euros in cash and fuel, about 150 million euros in fuel, by using a soft loan procedure guaranteed by the frozen assets," he told Reuters in an interview.
"We have frozen, only in Italy, about $8 billion of Libyan assets that are not belonging to the regime, that are…for the Libyan people."
Frattini was speaking at a meeting of Western and Arab countries aimed at backing the rebels against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and preparing for a post-Gaddafi government.
