Gaddafi reacts to NATO plan to fund rebels

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TRIPOLI, May 6 (AFP): Muammar Gaddafi's regime reacted angrily Friday to a NATO-led decision to provide funding to the three-month-old rebellion against his rule in Libya, describing as "piracy" plans to tap its assets frozen abroad. The fund, set up at a meeting of the International Contact Group on Libya in Rome on Thursday, is intended to provide an emergency lifeline to the rebels, whose provisional administration has no source of financing to replace receipts from oil exports which have come to a virtual halt. It will initially receive international donations, while blocked assets-estimated to be worth $60 billion (40 billion euros) in Europe and the United States-will be used to finance it at a later date. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, whose government hosted the meeting, said $250 million was already available in immediate humanitarian aid. Wealthy Gulf states Kuwait and Qatar have pledged to be major donors. The funds being made available are far less than the figure of up to $3 billion dollars that had been sought by the rebels but their leader Mahmud Jibril said: "It's a good start." French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said the new fund-to be managed alternately by France and Italy, the two European governments which have recognised the rebel administration-could be up and running "within weeks."