Libyan rebels to receive £1.8 billion trust fund

Libya's opposition is to get access to a special $3 billion (£1.8 billion) trust fund established by its Western backers to finance the breakaway regions fighting Col Muammar Gaddafi.

The Libya Contact Group will seek to unfreeze Libyan state assets to replenish the rebels' coffers through the initiative at a meeting in Rome.

That would include allowing the rebels to sell oil from territory under their control, but there are legal questions over who exactly owns the oil, given that Gaddafi is still in power.

There are also legal issues over whether assets owned by the regime and seized abroad could be given to the Libyan leader's opponents.

The rebels' National Transitional Council has said it urgently needs supplies of food and medicine as well as salaries for state employees.

The council said that without urgent funds from the West, the rebel leadership will face food shortages within three to four weeks and a humanitarian crisis.

The meeting, which brings together 22 Western and Middle Eastern countries along with the UN, African Union and Arab League, will be attended by Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, and Foreign Secretary William Hague. The money could then be paid back when the issue of oil sales is resolved.

His French counterpart, Alain Juppe, said: "It's not easy. There are Libyan assets that are frozen and for legal reasons unfreezing them is difficult."

The French foreign minister said a key objective of the meeting was to build contacts with officials who have already defected from the Gaddafi regime and others who want to leave it.

"There are a lot of officials from Tripoli who want to talk. We are going to try to coordinate," he said.