British Foreign Secretary William Hague said a no-fly zone did not necessarily require UN approval, telling the BBC "there have been occasions in the past when such a no-fly zone has had clear, legal, international justification even without a Security Council resolution."
British Prime Minister David Cameron, a leading advocate of the no-fly option, said "it is not acceptable to have a situation where Colonel Kadhafi can be murdering his own people, using aeroplanes and helicopter gunships and the like."
"It's right for us to plan and look at plans for a no-fly zone."
But US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said "there is no unanimity within NATO for the use of armed force."
"And the kinds of options that have been talked about in the press and elsewhere also have their own consequences and second and third order effects, so they need to be considered very carefully," he said at a news conference with the US military's top officer, Admiral Mike Mullen.
Any intervention beyond humanitarian assistance would have to take into account the effect on the US-led war effort in Afghanistan and likely hostile perceptions in the region of US military action.
"We also have to think about frankly the use of the US military in another country in the Middle East," said Gates, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said all options would be examined. But he too expressed caution about a potential Libya no-fly zone.
"It's an extraordinarily complex operation to set up," Mullen said.
The admiral agreed with an earlier assessment by the head of US Central Command, General James Mattis, that enforcing a no-fly zone would first require bombing Libyan radar and missile defences.
New French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe ruled out military action without a clear UN mandate and said NATO intervention in Libya might be "extremely counter-productive" in the eyes of Arab public opinion.
UN support looks unlikely after Russia, one of France and Britain's partners in the Security Council, hinted it would veto any resolution.
Even so, British UN envoy Mark Lyall Grant said new Security Council action against Libya, including a no-fly zone, is possible.
"We are not ruling anything out at this stage. We will look at what is happening on the ground and we will look to take whatever measures we consider necessary to respond to events on the ground," he said after the UN General Assembly suspended Libya from the UN Human Rights Council.
As Western leaders debated, rebels in Benghazi said they had formed a military council in the eastern Libyan city, which has become the hub of efforts to topple Kadhafi.
The council will liaise with similar groups in other freed cities in the east but it was not immediately clear if there were plans for a regional command.
Salwa Bughaighi, a member of the coalition trying to run Benghazi, said they would seek a no-fly zone to prevent Kadhafi from reinforcing his strongholds in Tripoli and Sirte.
Other people privy to rebel discussions in Benghazi said they are losing hope that the popular uprising can topple Kadhafi and are inclined to ask for foreign air strikes, perhaps under a UN mandate, on strategic targets.
The no-fly option received backing from the exiled crown prince of Libya, Mohammed el-Senussi, who said military action should go no further than that.
"Let me be clear. There is a difference between a no-fly zone and military intervention and the Libyan people do not seek external military involvement on the ground. That will not bring about the peace and freedom that we crave," he said in London.
Share
