BENGHAZI: Muammar Gaddafi's regime is “finished,” Italy's foreign minister said here Tuesday after NATO warplanes struck Tripoli and African efforts for a ceasefire stalled. “The Gaddafi regime is finished, he must leave office, he must leave the country,” Franco Frattini told a joint news conference in Benghazi with Ali Al-Essawi, the rebels' foreign affairs chief. “His aides have left, he has no international support, the G8 leaders reject him, he must go.” Frattini was speaking ahead of a ceremony to inaugurate a new Italian consulate in the eastern city, in another major blow to Gaddafi after NATO insisted his “reign of terror” is nearing an end. “We must continue our military pressure (and) strengthen our economic sanctions to ensure that the movement of the Libyan people is irreversible,” Frattini said. NATO pounded Tripoli earlier on Tuesday, only hours after South African President Jacob Zuma left Libya's capital having failed to close the gap between Gaddafi and rebels fighting to oust him since February. Zuma said raids by NATO, which is enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya and protecting civilians from a government crackdown under a UN mandate, were undermining African mediation efforts. In Tripoli, Zuma said Gaddafi was “ready to implement the roadmap of the AU” and that he had insisted “all Libyans be given a chance to talk among themselves” to determine the country's future. However, his office said later Gaddafi was not prepared to leave his country. “Colonel Gaddafi called for an end to the (NATO) bombings to enable a Libyan dialogue. He emphasized that he was not prepared to leave his country, despite the difficulties,” it said in a statement. – Agence France
