US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged a group of Western and Arab powers to step up pressure to remove Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
“Time is on our side,” she told a meeting of the Contact Group on Libya. “Gaddafi’s days are numbered.”
The meeting in the United Arab Emirates is expected to firm up plans to set up a fund to help the Libyan rebels.
Meanwhile Tripoli has denied allegations of war crimes made at a UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva.
Top officials from the Contact Group – which includes Britain, France and the US, as well as Arab allies Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar – are meeting in Abu Dhabi to prepare for the post-Gaddafi era in Libya.
At the start of the talks, Mrs Clinton said: “As time passes, maintaining our resolve and unity only grows more important.
“Alongside our military mission to protect the Libyan people, we must continue to escalate the political, diplomatic and financial pressure on Gaddafi and his regime.
“Time is on our side – but we know we must sustain the pressure. Gaddafi’s isolation is growing, as evidenced by the increasing number of calls for his departure.”
In Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council is debating a report on alleged human rights violations committed by both government troops and the rebels.
Libyan diplomat Mustafa Shaban told members that his government was “the victim of a widespread aggression” and blamed the media, opposition and foreign mercenaries for human rights abuses, including “acts of cannibalism”.
In a separate development, the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) said there was evidence that Col Gaddafi had ordered the rape of hundreds of women as a weapon of war against rebel forces.
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US seeks sustained Libya pressure