CAIRO – The Libyan Foreign Minister, Ashour Ben Khayal, has denied the existence of any foreign military presence in Libya. He was speaking at a press conference following his talks in Cairo with Egyptian Foreign Minister Muhammed Kamil Amr and Tunisian Foreign Minister Abdel-Salam Rafiq. The presence of foreign troops would be unacceptable to the Libyan people, he said. He was responding to a question about rumors that Libya would be paying NATO compensation for its role in last year and this would take the form of Libya agreeing to allow NATO to establish military bases in the country. There was no agreement whatsoever of this sort, he said, adding that no one would dare make such an offer and that no Libyan official had the authority to do so. — Libya Herald
