Berlusconi ‘opposed’ NATO role in Libya

ITALIAN Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he was against NATO intervention in Libya but had to go along with it, an admission that exposed the fragility of the alliance trying to unseat Muammar Gaddafi.

NATO warplanes have been bombing Libya under a UN mandate, but the alliance is under mounting strain because of the cost of the operation and the failure, after more than three months, to produce a decisive outcome.

“I was against this measure,” Berlusconi said. “I had my hands tied by the vote of the parliament of my country. But I was against and I am against this intervention which will end in a way that no-one knows.”

Some of the alliance bombing missions over Libya take off from military air-bases in Italy.

There was no suggestion following Berlusconi’s comments that Rome would withdraw the use of the bases. But Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa said that the cost to Italy of the Libya operation would fall from €142 million in the first half of the year to less than €60m in the second half as part of general defence spending cuts.

He said after a cabinet meeting the aircraft carrier Garibaldi, with three aircraft on board, had been withdrawn, and their tasks would be taken on by land-based aircraft.

Speaking at a book presentation in Rome, Berlusconi said: “I went to Paris and I said — I can repeat this — I would have stood with Ms Merkel as far as this decision to intervene in the no fly zone is concerned.”

He appeared to be referring to a March 19 meeting at which several Western powers decided to launch the military intervention. German Chancellor Angela Merkel chose not to involve her country in the operation.

“We posed very precise questions to the protagonists of this initiative — that’s to say President Sarkozy and Prime Minister David Cameron — in the most recent meeting of the heads of government in Brussels,” he said.

“The answer was that the war will end when there is, as we expect, a revolt by the population of Tripoli against the current regime.”

Gaddafi has rejected any suggestion that he will give up power and he has described the NATO campaign as an act of colonial aggression aimed at stealing Libya’s oil.

Potentially adding to the pressure on Italy to review its stance on Libya, a senior Libyan government spokesman said negotiations had begun with Russian and Chinese firms to take over the role of Italian energy firm ENI in oil and gas projects.