Contact group agrees new fund for Libya rebels

ROME, May 5 (Agencies): An international meeting on Libya agreed Thursday on a new fund to aid Libya's rebels, with the US and Europe promising to tap frozen assets of Moamer Gaddafi's regime despite still unresolved legal issues. The fund will initially receive donations and loans from the international community, while the assets -- estimated at 30 billion dollars (20 billion euros) for the US alone -- will be used to finance it at a later date. The Libya Contact Group, composed of Nato members, Arab states and international organisations, is looking at ways to finance the rebels, either through loans or the sale of oil from rebel-held areas. There was tight security at the meeting, which brought together representatives of 22 countries and six international organisations including NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. It was the second time the International Contact Group for Libya gets together after it held its inaugural meeting in Qatar. Participants agreed to hold their next get-together in the United Arab Emirates in June. Turkey called for a seven-day timeline within which to negotiate a ceasefire in Libya, Frattini said, but there were few details from the meeting on how that could happen or on any diplomatic solution. In Benghazi, the rebel administration is running out of money. A spokesman for the Transitional National Council said the rebels need $1.5bn (£0.9bn) in the coming months. France and Italy will take turns managing the fund and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said the new body could be up and running "within weeks" but added that the unblocking of assets "poses legal problems." Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said 250 million dollars (170 million euros) were already available -- far less than the figure of up to three billion dollars in desperately-needed credit wanted by the rebels. Britain meanwhile ruled out any contribution to the fund from its own pocket,with a spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron saying: "We think we have made a very substantial contribution to humanitarian assistance."