Cabinet to meet and officially recognise TNC as Libya's interim government

Additional reporting by Nestor Laiviera.

Gonzi, who yesterday was on the phone with the TNC leader Mahmoud Jibril, expressed Malta’s full support towards the Libyan people’s quest for democracy, and lauded the Libyan people’s fight for freedom.

Jibril – who expressed his wish to visit Malta – has thanked the Maltese people for all their support.

Gonzi also added that Malta’s Government Contingency Centre (GCC) has been in operation since Monday morning, to ensure that Malta “can react swiftly to ongoing developments as they happen.”

Gonzi said that the Cabinet meeting with analyse the situation and safeguard the interests of Maltese workers and Maltese investments in Libya.

He said ministers will also look towards building an economic, cultural, and political relationship with the Libyan people and its new government.

"In the developments that unfolded in the past 24 hours, the Libyan people voiced their desire for a change in administration and wanted to shift towards democracy.

“In the scenes we have seen early this morning and over the rest of the day, we saw a Libyan people happy to have had the chance to taste the values of freedom, of freedom of expression, and fundamental rights,” he said.

This has been the position that the Maltese government took from the start, Gonzi said.

“We condemned the violence taking place against the Libyan people by Gaddafi. Soon after, we said that Gaddafi’s regime had lost its legitimacy as a Libyan government due to that violence.”

Gonzi said that soon after that, the Maltese government had also said that it were not ready to keep discussing with Gaddafi and recognised the transitional council as a Libyan people’s sole interlocutor.

He said that when speaking to Jibril earlier on Monday, he welcomed the developments in the Libyan capital, and augured that the council is able to conclude the issue as soon as possible in Tripoli and the rest of Libya “so as to bring an end to the violence and ensure economic stability.”

This, he said, is not only in the interest of the Libyan people, but also of “phenomenal” interest to the Maltese people and country.

He said that he once again extended a hand of cooperation to Jibril “in anything we can provide so that the change can be speeded up and carried out as calmly as possible.

A senior government spokesman said that a task-force operating from Castille is working relentlessly to ensure the safety of a number of Maltese nationals who remain in Tripoli, while also coordinating any requests for assistance of other EU nationals in the Libyan capital.

Last June, Prime Minister Gonzi had informed Jibril that the Maltese government considered the Transitional National Council as the sole legitimate interlocutor of the Libyan people.

Last March, Libya’s rebel council had made formal contact with the Maltese government through a note verbale sent via a representative within the Arab League, committing itself to “honour and respect all international and regional agreements signed by the former Libyan government.”