Libya: Nato foreign ministers to hold talks in Berlin
Libyan rebels have been battling Col Gaddafi's forces along the country's northern coastForeign ministers from Nato countries are due to meet in Berlin, with Libya at the top of the agenda.
The UK and France have been pushing for other countries to increase the military pressure on Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
Airstrikes led by the US, France and Britain began last month. Nato has since taken leadership of the mission.
Ahead of the Berlin talks, the "contact group" on Libya issued a statement calling on Col Gaddafi to stand down.
The BBC's Stephen Evans reports from Berlin that foreign ministers will be trying to find a coherent strategy whilst holding different views over what the role of armed force from outside should be.
Tasks in the Libya mission include policing the arms embargo with ships and enforcing the no-fly-zone, which involves flying but not attacking targets on the ground.
The UK and France want more countries involved in the most aggressive role, that of attacking targets on the ground, with the obvious candidates being Italy and Spain, our correspondent says.
'Renewed atrocities'The US has scaled back its role in Libya, though on Wednesday it clarified that US jets were still carrying out bombing raids on Libya's air defences.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is due to attend the meeting in Berlin, condemned the Gaddafi regime's "continued brutal attacks on the Libyan people".
"In recent days, we have received disturbing reports of renewed atrocities conducted by Gaddafi's forces," she said in a statement.
Meeting in Paris late on Wednesday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron agreed to step up military pressure on Col Gaddafi, a French official said.
The official, who briefed reporters on the meeting, said the coalition should have "all the means it needs", and that it should show "total determination" to end the sieges of the rebel-held western towns of Misrata and Zintan.
The official said France was not arming rebels, but "that doesn't mean we don't sympathise with those who do".
"The [rebel] Transitional National Council is not having problems finding the weapons they need and friends to show them how to use them," he added.
Britain said it was to provide the rebels with 1,000 sets of body armour, and that 100 satellite phones had already been sent.
'Financial piracy'Meanwhile, Libyan Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim accused Qatar of supplying rebels with French-made anti-tank missiles and sending military trainers to help rebels in the eastern city of Benghazi, reports said.
He also said Lebanese militants from Hezbollah were helping the rebels. The claims could not be immediately verified.
On Wednesday the contact group, which includes Western powers, their Middle Eastern allies and international organisations, met rebel leaders in Doha, Qatar.
It agreed to continue to provide the rebels with "material support", and to consider channelling funds to them.
Libyan Finance Minister Abdulhafid Zlitni told journalists in Tripoli that $120bn (£74bn) of Libyan assets had been frozen abroad under international sanctions, and that it would be "financial piracy" to channel any of the money to rebels - as rebel leaders have proposed.
In Libya on Wednesday rebels reported more heavy fighting in Misrata, where Col Gaddafi's forces have been trying to dislodge them with bombardments and street attacks for weeks.
Nato said it had attacked munitions bunkers 13km (8 miles) from the Libyan capital, while Libyan TV reported other airstrikes in the Libyan cities of al-Aziziya, Sirte, and Misrata.
As the fighting continues, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned that more than half of Libya's population of six million might eventually require humanitarian aid.
He said about 490,000 people had fled Libya since the conflict began in February.
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