Gaddafi angry over NATO funding for Libyan rebels

MUAMMAR GADDAFI’S regime reacted angrily to a NATO-led decision to provide funding to the three-month-old rebellion against his rule in Libya, describing as “piracy” plans to tap its assets frozen abroad.

The fund, set up at a meeting of the International Contact Group on Libya in Rome, is intended to provide an emergency lifeline to the rebels, whose provisional administration has no source of financing to replace receipts from oil exports which have come to a virtual halt.

It will initially receive international donations, while blocked assets — estimated to be worth €40 billion in Europe and the United States — will be used to finance it at a later date.