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This Article is From Apr 14, 2011

Will take all steps to help Libyan rebels, says David Cameron

Will take all steps to help Libyan rebels, says David Cameron
Paris: British Prime Minister David Cameron met French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris on Wednesday to discuss the military operation in Libya.

In an interview ahead of the meeting, Cameron said that the international community should increase pressure on Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi and added that Britain and France would "leave no stone unturned" as they search for ways to help Libya's rebels topple him.

Cameron said Britain and France would seek ways to halt Gaddafi's assault against civilians in places like the besieged city of Misrata - the only city in western Libya still partially held by rebels.

"I will be looking at all steps that we can take to help these people," Cameron said.

"They are defending civilian life and they're standing up for the future of Libya and they're basically at the moment having an appalling onslaught from Gaddafi who in Misrata, as you've been showing on our television screens, is frankly murdering his own people."

France and Britain agreed on Wednesday to press other NATO countries to provide all the firepower necessary to protect Libyan civilians from an onslaught by Gaddafi's forces, a top French official said, amid a rift within the alliance over the scope of their operation in the North African country.

Sarkozy hosted Cameron and their respective defence chiefs in Paris on the eve of a two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Berlin with Libya high on the agenda.

A leading Sarkozy adviser, briefing reporters after the meeting, said Britain and France agreed to "show extreme strength of conviction" so that a NATO-led international coalition enforcing a no-fly zone and carrying out air strikes over Libya will have "all the means it needs."

France and Britain are leading the allied air campaign in Libya and have sought greater participation from other NATO nations, notably the United States, after three weeks of allied airstrikes have failed to rout Gaddafi's forces.

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