(Reuters) - Germany
recognized Libya's rebel council as the legitimate representative of
the Libyan people on Monday, giving heavyweight support to leaders
poised to run the country if Muammar Gaddafi falls.
The recognition, voiced by
Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on a visit to the rebel stronghold of
Benghazi, is significant because Berlin has been reluctant to be drawn
into the conflict and opted out of NATO military action.
"We
share the same goal -- Libya without Gaddafi," Westerwelle told a news
conference after meeting members of the National Transitional Council,
seen by many as a government-in-waiting.
"The
national council is the legitimate representative of the Libyan
people," Westerwelle said, to applause. Countries that have recognized
the rebel council include
France, Italy, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday urged African leaders to follow suit and abandon Gaddafi.
Gaddafi
has styled himself the African "king of kings" and over the years won
support from many African states in exchange for financial help and
generous gifts. Most countries on the continent have been lukewarm
toward the rebels.
"It has become
clear that we are long past the time when he (Gaddafi) can remain in
power," Clinton said in a speech to the African Union at its
headquarters in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
"Your
words and your actions could make the difference... (in ending this
situation) ...and allowing the people of Libya to get to work writing a
constitution and rebuilding their country," she said.
Gaddafi's
government on Monday promised to implement proposals laid out by
African countries to end the stalemate as well as draft a constitution
and a new media law, according to official JANA news agency.
MISRATA ADVANCE
A
Reuters photographer in Misrata, the biggest rebel stronghold in
western Libya, joined rebel units as they pushed their front several
kilometers west to the outskirts of Zlitan, a neighboring town
controlled by Gaddafi's forces.
The
photographer was taken to the furthest rebel point along the main road,
where rebels had shifted shipping containers and sand to block the road
and provide cover for their fighters.
After taking control of a mosque in farmland beside the road, the two sides traded heavy artillery fire.
On
the wall of the mosque, rebels had scrubbed out graffiti in Arabic that
read "Muammar." The new positions, they said, were inside Zlitan
district.
A doctor at a field
hospital in Dafniyah, west of Misrata, said two rebels were killed and
at least 12
wounded in rocket attacks near the mosque.
Zlitan
may be the next town to rise against Gaddafi's rule, bringing the
rebellion closer to Tripoli, the Libyan leader's stronghold which lies
200 km (124 miles) west of Misrata.
Rebels
from Misrata say tribal sensitivities prevent them from attacking, and
they are instead waiting for the people of Zlitan to rise up.
Western
governments say they believe it is only a matter of time before
Gaddafi's 41-year rule ends under the weight of NATO military
intervention, sanctions and defections.
But
Gaddafi has refused to quit, and he has proved in the past to be a wily
survivor. Libyan television showed him on Sunday evening playing chess
with the visiting president of the international chess federation.
His
armed forces have also shown they are not about to buckle, inflicting
heavy damage on the rebels on several fronts and forcing the NATO-led
coalition to extend its operation until the end of September.
Britain's navy chief warned on Monday that a prolonged military campaign would be challenging for its naval resources.
"Beyond
that (90 days) ... we might have to request the government to make some
challenging decisions about what priorities they want," Admiral Mark
Stanhope told reporters at a joint briefing with the head of the U.S.
navy in London.
ZAWIYAH REBELS SILENCED
Fighting
flared at the weekend in the town of Zawiyah, 50 km (30 miles) west of
the capital -- clashes the rebel leadership said were a sign that the
momentum in the four-month-old conflict was shifting their way.
But
on Monday, a rebel spokesman in Zawiyah who had been giving accounts of
the fighting was no longer reachable by telephone. The main highway
west from Tripoli, which had been closed because of the fighting,
appeared to have re-opened.
A group of foreign journalists who traveled with an official escort from Tripoli to neighboring
Tunisia on Monday morning passed along the main highway, instead of taking a detour near Zawiyah as happened at the weekend.
A
rebel spokesman in the town of Zintan, in the rebel-held Western
Mountains range southwest of Tripoli, said the settlement was subjected
to its heaviest bombardment by pro-Gaddafi forces in several weeks on
Sunday.
"There were nine martyrs
from the bombardment ... yesterday. More than 40 others were wounded,"
the spokesman, called Abdulrahman, told Reuters by telephone from
Zintan.
"The revolutionaries
captured several mercenaries and Libyan army officers. Some of them were
wounded and are receiving treatment," he said. "There was no
bombardment today. It's quiet for the moment."
Gaddafi
has said the rebels are criminals and al Qaeda militants. He has
described the NATO military intervention as an act of colonial
aggression aimed at grabbing Libya's oil.
Libyan
state television on Monday showed pictures of what it said was Abu Bakr
Jaber Younes, Gaddafi's de facto defense minister, touring the front
lines in Brega, an oil town on the Mediterranean Sea that marks his
eastern front line.
On Sunday,
rebels said they were repulsed by Gaddafi's forces in a battle to retake
Brega, despite NATO air support, and at least four were killed and 65
wounded.
"We attacked them first
but they attacked us back. We tried to get to Brega but that was
difficult," said Haithan Elgwei, a rebel fighter, after returning from
the front.
This is the second major allegation of abuse of power by the Malaysian authorities since November 2005, when a video of a woman forced to perform nude squats by the police began circulating on the Internet.
“I would advise that all parties be careful in making an accusation when its validity has yet to be verified,” said Hishammuddin (picture).
