British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are planning to visit Libya Thursday in a trip that would be the first by foreign leaders since rebels ousted Muammar Gaddafi, sources said.
France and Britain spearheaded the NATO air war against Gaddafi's forces that helped the rebels slowly fight their way towards Tripoli and install the National Transitional Council (NTC) as the new government there.
The plans for the trip were confirmed by sources close to the NTC in Tripoli but no details were provided.
REVOLUTION 'CHAMPION' JOINS LEADERS
Cameron and Sarkozy will be accompanied by Bernard-Henri Levy, the French philosopher who championed Libya's revolution and helped convince Sarkozy to back the rebels, several sources said in Paris.
The trio were expected to meet with NTC leaders in Tripoli, while press reports said they may also travel to Benghazi, the eastern city where the uprising kicked off in February.
French police sources said that 160 officers had been told to get ready for a Wednesday night flight to Libya in order to secure a number of places in Tripoli ahead of the visit.
The officers were told that they would be returning to France on Friday, the sources said.
Both Cameron's and Sarkozy's office declined to comment when asked about the trip. Sarkozy said during a major international conference on Libya in early September that he would travel to Tripoli once the NTC was installed there.
GADDAFI FORCES CONTINUE ATTACKS
The reported trip comes as Gaddafi's forces continued to mount attacks against NTC fighters in a few areas, including the oasis town of Bani Walid, one of the deposed strongman's last bastions of support, southeast of Tripoli.
Gaddafi, wanted for alleged crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, remains in hiding but many of his inner circle and a son have fled to neighbouring Niger.
Gaddafi appealed on Wednesday for the international community to help his hometown of Sirte, encircled by forces loyal to Libya's new government, in an audio message aired on a Syria-based television channel.
Fighters loyal to the NTC said pro-Gaddafi forces had formed a crescent-shaped chain of tanks around Sirte to prevent civilians from fleeing and to parry any assault on the city.
They said Gaddafi's propaganda was aimed at persuading Sirte's population to believe that the forces of the new leadership were all Islamists and terrorists.
NATO stresses that Gaddafi is not a target in the daily bombing campaign it has kept up against his remaining forces, which still control a swathe of the coast around Sirte as well as a string of Saharan oases.
Diplomats in New York said Wednesday that Britain hopes that a vote will be held within three days on a United Nations Security Council resolution it has drafted setting up a UN mission in Libya.
NIGER TO PREVENT SAADI GADDAFI FROM TRAVELLING
The United States said Wednesday it has received assurances from Niger that Saadi Gaddafi, a son of fallen Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, will be prevented from traveling.
"We received assurances from the government of Niger that Saadi Gaddafi will be prevented from travel. That's in accordance with the travel ban in UN Security Council Resolution 1970," State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said.
Niger's prime minister Brigi Rafini said on Monday that 32 members of Gaddafi's inner circle, including his son Saadi, have arrived in Niger since September 2, adding they were admitted for "humanitarian reasons."
"It's also worth mentioning that the government of Niger has also assured us that they'll continue to take ... necessary measures to try to strengthen the security of their borders going forward," Toner told reporters.
He added that the United States also expects the government of Niger "to cooperate fully" with Libya's interim leaders "in bringing to justice anyone suspected of committing crimes or human rights abuses in Libya."
"And to that end, I'm aware that the government of Niger is in touch with the Transitional National Council with regards to this case," he said.
