Libya Contact Group to Meet April 13 in Doha

W460

The international contact group on Libya will meet on April 13 in the Qatari capital Doha, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Thursday.

France is trying "to convince the African Union to be present in Qatar next week because that's where the contact group is to meet on April 13," Juppe told lawmakers.

The AU did not attend the March 29 international conference in London that set up the contact group which is "charged with ensuring the political governance of the military intervention and the implementation of U.N. resolutions," Juppe said.

France wants members of the rebel Transitional National Council (TNC) that is fighting Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's forces to attend a European Union foreign ministers' meeting next week ahead of the contact group.

"I'm working for them to be heard on Monday by the council of foreign ministers in Brussels," he said.

"There is apparently still some resistance from a few countries but we have to speak to them (the TNC) even if of course they don't have a monopoly on representing the Libyan people," Juppe said.

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