Contact Group diplomats to meet on Libya Thursday: US

General view of the opening of the fourth meeting of the
Libya contact group in Istanbul in July 2011
© AFP/POOL/File Saul Loeb

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Diplomats from the Contact Group on Libya will meet Thursday “to coordinate next steps,” the State Department said Monday following the collapse of the regime of Moamer Kadhafi.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and several counterparts agreed in a teleconference to the meeting, which will be held in Istanbul at the level of foreign ministry political directors, spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

“Political directors will meet later this week in Istanbul to coordinate next steps,” Nuland said.

Philip Gordon, the assistant US secretary of state for European affairs, will represent the United States, she said.

Nuland said the diplomats will decide on a French offer to host a ministerial-level meeting of the Contact Group in Paris, with a view to defining a plan for aid to the new authorities in Tripoli.

The diplomatic moves came as Libyan rebels took control of most of Tripoli in a dramatic rout of loyalist forces. Kadhafi’s whereabouts remained a mystery, however.

The Contact Group is composed primarily of countries that participated in a NATO air campaign in support of the rebels.