France's Sarkozy to meet Libya rebel leader in Paris

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PARIS | Tue Apr 19, 2011 8:56am EDT
(Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet the head of Libya's rebel opposition, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, in Paris on Wednesday as Western powers struggle to break a deadlock in the two-month-old conflict.

It will be the first time Sarkozy -- the first foreign leader to recognize the interim national transition council -- will meet its leader, who was formerly Muammar Gaddafi's justice minister. They meet at midday (1000 GMT).

Western leaders committed to helping the rebels overthrow Gaddafi are failing to break a military stalemate in the North African country. Government shelling and sniping has killed hundreds of people in the besieged city of Misrata in the last few weeks.

Abdel Jalil is expected to ask that NATO increase its air strikes and could supply a list of names of officials in Tripoli with whom the opposition would be willing to work if Gaddafi departs, a source close to the Libyan opposition said.

"Mustafa Abdel Jalil will bring precise information on military targets, including inside Misrata," the source said.

Sarkozy's office said the talks would focus on how to bring about a democratic transition in Libya, which has been under Gaddafi's authoritarian rule for 41 years.

The meeting is being arranged by Bernard Henri-Levy, a French philosopher who has close relations with the rebel opposition and was instrumental in France taking the lead in the West's response to the crisis in Libya, the source said.

(Reporting by Emmanuel Jarry; Writing by Catherine Bremer, edited by Richard Meares)