Rebels consider how to spend Gaddafi billions

LIBYA’S new leadership reaffirmed their commitment to democracy and good governance yesterday as they worked on how to spend billions of dollars they have been given from the frozen assets of fugitive strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

A day after international powers met in Paris and agreed to hand over $15 billion (€10.56bn) to the rebels who overthrew Gaddafi last week, the European Union, a key trading partner, rescinded a range of sanctions, and officials from the National Transitional Council told financiers about their rebuilding plans.

The NTC’s representative in London said that work on putting right the damage of 42 years of eccentric one-man rule and of six months of civil war should not wait until Gaddafi is found and the last bastions of armed support for him are defeated.