ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Libya's main opposition group appealed Thursday for urgent infusions of cash from foreign nations to help support the rebellion against Moammar Gadhafi and said a meeting of countries backing NATO's military mission over the country would be a "total failure" if financial assistance was not forthcoming.
Italy promptly pledged nearly $600 million to the cause but the rebels were likely to be disappointed by the U.S. response announced by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who said Washington would boost its humanitarian aid to all Libyans by $26.5 million and continue to look at ways to assist the opposition.
"Gadhafi’s days are numbered," Clinton said. "We are working with our international partners through the U.N. to plan for the inevitable: a post-Gadhafi Libya."
As senior officials from the more than 30-member coalition met in the United Arab Emirates to prepare for the post-Gadhafi era in Libya, the opposition Transitional National Council lamented that the international community still did not understand the needs of the Libyan people after months of violence.
But opposition Finance Minister Ali Tarhouni said outsiders have not matched verbal pledges of aid with enough money and urged nations to allow the council to use frozen Gadhafi regime assets as collateral for loans to help.
"Our people are dying," he told reporters on the sidelines of the conference in Abu Dhabi. "It’s been almost four months now and nothing has materialized so far. Our message to our friends is that I hope that they walk the walk."
Italy said it would offer up to $600 million for "the day-to-day needs" of the council, encouraging other countries supporting NATO action against Gadhafi to provide similar financial support.
Italian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maurizio Massari said "timing was of the essence" and noted that the rebels "need help now."
The council has said it needs some $3 billion in funding to support itself for the next several months but has been appealing for diplomatic recognition and financial support with mixed results.
Although a handful of nations have recognized the council as the legitimate government of Libya, the United States has not.
That has delayed efforts to free up some of the more than $30 billion in Libyan assets that have been frozen in U.S. accounts.
The U.S. and others have provided humanitarian aid and nonlethal military support, but Tarhouni said it was not enough.
In addition to meeting its current operating expenses, the council has also begun planning for how it will police and provide basic services to citizens in Tripoli and areas not now under its control.
In prepared remarks to the conference, Clinton acknowledged that the council "faces a serious budget shortfall" and "needs our immediate financial assistance."
She noted that a group of U.S. lawmakers has come up with a framework to allow a portion of the frozen assets to be used to pay for humanitarian relief. She called on other countries to follow suit.
But it was not clear when the money would be freed up, and Clinton made no new pledge of assistance to the council, although she said the U.S. would provide and additional $26.5 million in relief.
The U.S. said on Wednesday that the first shipment of Libyan oil sold by the council had been delivered to an American refinery and Clinton encouraged other nations to make similar purchases to help the Libyan people.
The focus on the eventual departure of Gadhafi’s despotic regime comes even as the longtime leader continues to defy intensified diplomatic, economic and military pressure to step down.
NATO has stepped up airstrikes on Gadhafi targets in and around Tripoli and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Wednesday called for allies not directly involved in the operation to do more.
NATO airstrikes rattled the Libyan capital Thursday morning, with seven thunderous explosions shaking the city.
Concussions from the strikes, in clusters of a few minutes apart, washed over Tripoli from its outskirts.
Rebels hold swaths of eastern Libya, although fighting has since become a stalemate even with NATO support.
Preparing for Libya’s next phase will require a decision on what fate — exile, prosecution or some third option — should befall the leader and his family, the parameters for a ceasefire between rebels and remaining Gadhafi loyalists and the creation of a viable political process that will ensure the democratic aspirations of the Libyan people, according to U.S. officials.
