Gaddafi regime’s foreign assets exceed $100bn, say rebels

Muammar Gaddafi has at least $100bn of assets abroad and Libya’s Transitional National Council expects a portion of the frozen funds to be released or to obtain borrowing against them.

 “To be safe we’re saying there’s over $100bn,” spokesman Mahmoud Shammam said by telephone from Istanbul, where the US and its allies recognised the council as the sole legitimate governing authority in Libya at a meeting on Friday. “We need some necessity expenses and to get loans against a percentage.”

The council requires $3bn over six months to cover the budget and expects to get a $100m loan from Turkey in the next three days, Shammam said.

Kuwait has pledged $180m, while Italy and other governments said on Friday that Libyan assets held by their countries “will be released or we’ll get loans against them,” he said.

The TNC is saying the unfrozen funds won’t be spent, rather used as collateral to cover borrowing until an elected government is in place, Shammam said.

The US and international allies meeting about Libya recognised the transitional national council as the sole legitimate governing authority in the country, a step that allows for greater funding for the opposition group.

 “I am announcing today that, until an interim authority is in place, the United States will recognise the TNC as the legitimate governing authority for Libya, and we will deal with it on that basis,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday in Istanbul.

The Contact Group laid out the conditions for a “genuine cease-fire” in a final statement and declared that leader Muammar Qaddafi and certain members of his family must go.

(Bloomberg)