TUNIS: A protracted struggle for Libya could leave it in the hands of extremists instead of the liberal economic technocrats who now lead its rebel movement, the World Bank's representative for Libya said Thursday. “If this civil war goes on, it would be a new Somalia, which I don't say lightly,” said Marouane Abassi, World Bank country manager for Libya who has been in Tunisia since February. “In three months we could be dealing with extremists. That's why time is very important in this conflict, before we face problems in managing it.” Abassi, who is Tunisian, said the World Bank had been working with Libya since 2006 on plans for economic reforms led by leader Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif Al-Islam, although many of those reform plans were scuppered by Gaddafi. He described some of the leaders of the rebel Transitional National Council as among those most strongly associated with economic reform plans. “...We know them, we did good work with them,” Abassi said, citing Ali Issawi, a former economy minister and ambassador, and Mahmoud Jebril, who resigned from a state economic think-tank after Gaddafi overruled his suggestions for liberalizing the economy. “These guys tried inside (Gaddafi's government). In 2009 Gaddafi stopped the connection between us and them,” said Abassi. Nevertheless, parts of Gaddafi's government and local councils were still seeking World Bank advice up to February, when pro-democracy protests broke out, he said. “In the last two years it was a battle between reformists and the old guard. But even the last minister of economy who was against us ... accepted the rules of the game,” he said. In African, African leaders sought backing for a roadmap out of the Libyan conflict at a summit Thursday where an invited delegation of Libyan rebels pushed demands that Gaddafi steps down. Representatives of the Libyan regime were also at the two-day summit outside the Equatorial Guinea capital which will seek consensus on the roadmap that includes a ceasefire and negotiations. The African Union summit opened with leaders critical of France's supply of weapons to the Libyan rebels and of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued for Gaddafi for atrocities. They have also spoken out against a NATO-led bombing campaign against Libyan forces that is meant to protect civilians. “It is undoubtedly on this crisis that our deliberations are expected,” African Union Commission chairman Jean Ping said in his opening address to the meeting including more than 30 African leaders. The African Union must bear in mind in its talks the “suffering of the Libyan people because of the continuing clashes and the air bombing operations,” he said, before leaders went into a closed session. The Libyan rebel team, invited as a special guests, said there was a wide feeling that it was time for Kadhafi to leave. The Libyan rebellion, which began with an uprising in February and has been backed by Western air strikes since March, has so far failed to dislodge Gaddafi, raising pressure on Western countries to take more decisive action. France said Wednesday it had sent arms to the rebels, which some countries believe violates an arms embargo. Gaddafi says the Western intervention is a plot to steal Libya's oil. The AU roadmap has been accepted by Gaddafi but the rebels have previously rejected it, demanding the leader must step down. The rebel delegation, including former Libyan foreign minister Abderaman Shalgam, was listed as special guests of the summit. Representatives of the Libyan regime said they too expected support from the meeting. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meanwhile Thursday demanded an explanation from France over its reported arms drop to Libyan rebels. “If this is confirmed, it would be a brazen violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1970,” Lavrov said, referring to a February resolution that prohibited states from providing any kind of arms to Libya.
