Libya live blog March 3

Reporting by Karl Stagno-Navarra, Matthew Vella, Miriam Dalli and Nestor Laiviera.

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22:02 Malta will be operating six Air Malta flights between Tunisia and Cairo to evacuate some 900 Egyptians as its contribution to the humanitarian operation on the Tunisia-Libya border, Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici announced. The cost of these flights would be covered by the Maltese government.

Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici also announced a number of bank accounts where people could contribute for the purchase of humanitarian aid to Libya. The accounts will be operated by the Civil Protection Department. He said the most urgent need was for the provision of medical supplies.

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19:39 A Dutch helicopter crew captured by Gaddafi loyalists in Libya on Sunday evening, had departed from Malta, MaltaToday can confirm.The three crew members, two pilots - including a woman – and a loadmaster were aboard a Lynx helicopter of the Royal Dutch Navy attached to the Navy Ship Tromp that was stationed 25 miles South of Malta.

The female pilot was in regular contact with Malta Air Traffic Control several times, declaring “NRN (Netherlands Royal Navy) 277 flight leaving with supplies to mother vessel” as she taxied on Malta International Airport runway. After landing on the Tromp, the same crew were engaged to evacuate two Dutch nationals in the city of Sirte.

Once landed at night, the crew were eventually surrounded by Gaddafi loyalists and taken prisoners. The two Dutch civilian nationals they were meant to evacuate were then reportedly passed on to the Dutch embassy in Tripoli.

Talks are under way to free the helicopter crew captured the Netherlands' defence ministry has said today,  while a spokesman confirmed that "intensive negotiations" were under way.

The ministry was in contact with the marines who were "doing well under the circumstances", he added.

"We hope they will be released as quickly as possible," Otte Beeksma told the Associated Press news agency.

Asked if the Dutch government considered the marines hostages, he replied: "They are being held by Libyan authorities."

Two people the marines were trying to rescue - one Dutch person and another European - were captured but have since been released and have left Libya, Dutch media say.

"It was a consular evacuation," Mr Beeksma added.

"During the operation the helicopter was grounded by an armed unit."

'A real risk'

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said news of the men's capture had been kept quiet to assist talks on their release.

19:21 US President Barack Obama has announced that he has authorised the use of  military aircraft to help evacuate refugees from Libya.  He also held the Gaddafi responsible for any crimes against humanity and insisted that Col. Gaddafi had lost all authority in Libya and should leave.  He was speaking at a press conference welcoming President Calderon of Mexico.  As he spoke Gaddafi loyalists were making a fresh attempt to retake the port of Brega.

18:00 Of the 33 Maltese nationals determined to stay in Libya despite the unrest that has overwhelmed the country and shut down the government, only two have changed their minds, says Home Affairs and Justice Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici.

Speaking at an informal press briefing on the ongoing evacuation attempts, Mifsud Bonnici said that until 4:00 pm on Thursday afternoon, 14,039 foreigners of various nationalities were evacuated through Malta.

Of these, 4,000 were transported by air, while the remaining 10,039 where transported by sea over as many as 54 air trips and 17 sea trips. The evacuees spanned 89 nationalities.

Mifsud Bonnici added that so far, 254 Maltese nationals have been brought back from Libya. Of these, he said, three are currently in transit, three are “caught on an oil rig”, three are in a state of “no contact” while three more are pending repatriation efforts.

17:31 France and Britain want to put "bold and ambitious measures" to next week's emergency European Union summit on the Libyan crisis, British Foreign Minister William Hague has said.

Following talks with his French counterpart Alain Juppe on the possibility of a no-fly zone to stop Muammar Gaddafi from bombing protesters, Hague said: "I don't see any difference between France, Britain and the United States."

Hague, stood alongside Juppe, said: "What we want to see is an end to violence, to the bloodshed in Libya and the vigorous implementation of the sanctions and measures that have been agreed."

"I continue to hold the view that the speediest way to bring about an end to the bloodshed is for Colonel Gaddafi to leave."

17:22 The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) and other governmental agencies have continued to compile a list of assets belonging to Muammar Gaddafi, his family and other senior members of the Libyan regime, as European Union sanctions have come into force today. A list of the 26 Libyans targeted by the 27-nation bloc published in the daily EU  Official Journal signals the immediate enforcement of an asset freeze and visa ban agreed on Monday. Aside from Gaddafi the measures apply to his seven sons and his daughter, along with his wife Safia al-Barassi, amongst other relatives and close associates.

A government spokesman has said that a preliminary list of financial and other assets belonging to the 27 people targeted by the sanctions in Malta would be known by tomorrow.

17:15 HMS York arrives in Malta with evacuees from Benghazi, and distributing medical aid to hospitals.

17:00 A group of Libyan activists have gathered “tens of thousands of signatures” in under 24 hours on a petition calling for Malta to grant asylum to two Libyan pilots who defected to Malta on February 22.

According to the petition organisers ‘Enough’ through website www.change.org the two pilots faced an unimaginable choice: bomb their countrymen or face likely execution if they returned without carrying out the attacks. Instead, they found a third option - flying their Mirage jets out of Libya and defecting to the nearby island nation of Malta. In doing so, they saved the lives of untold numbers of their fellow Libyans.

The website says that “to date the Maltese government has been silent as to the fate of the two pilots, and the decision rests with Malta's Refugee Commissioner Mario Guido Friggieri,” adding that if the pilots are sent back to Libya, they will likely be executed.

A grassroots Libyan group called ENOUGH! has started the petition to “pressure” the Maltese government to grant asylum to these two pilots, which will mean saving their lives and possibly preventing future attacks on civilians.

The petition calls upon the Maltese government to make a public declaration of asylum for the pilots in order to “encourage more pilots and ship captains to refuse to attack civilians.”

16:48 INDIAN EVACUATION UPDATE | Over 7,000 Indians out of 18,000, stuck in strife-torn Libya, would have been evacuated by tomorrow as the private companies were also flying out their professionals and workers. "So far, over 6,000 Indians have been evacuated and we are expecting another thousand to come in by late tonight," External Affairs Minister SM Krishna told reporters in India today. The air-bridge between Tripoli and Delhi, already picking up over a thousand Indian nationals daily out of Libya, was being supplemented tomorrow by another Boeing 747, the MEA said in a statement.

Earlier, three Air India planes -two Boeing 747s and one Airbus-330 - arrived, as usual, from Tripoli with 1,050 passengers on board, it said, adding arrangements are being made to send them to their home towns.

The ministry has also pressed into service another ferry ship, reaching Misurata (Libya) from Malta by midday tomorrow and was expected to return to Malta in the forenoon of Saturday. Kingfisher and Jet Airways aircraft will then fly out the Indian nationals from Valetta.

MV Scotia Prince reached Alexandria last evening with 1,188 passengers. Five air sorties including four Egypt Air special flights are bringing the passengers home.

The ship is scheduled to return to Benghazi by March 5 to bring back the next batch of passengers to Alexandria. An IAF IL-76 (Gajraj) has also been positioned in Egypt to assist in the current operations.

Besides the initiative of Indian companies such as DS Construction, Punj Llyod and MN Dastur and Co. in flying out their professionals and workers, the Indian Embassy in Tunis is assisting with special flights out of Tunis and Djerba, the MEA said. "Our Embassy in Cairo is similarly continuing to assist Indian nationals crossing the Libyan border at Salloum to take commercial flights to Indian destinations from Cairo," it added.

16:33 "Libya was and is on the verge of civil war and our main task was to save our people there (Russian citizens)," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has told Russia's Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu, according to state news agency ITAR-TASS.

Praising the operation to evacuate Russians from Libya, Medvedev said: "During such events (such as in Libya) there is usually a complete disorganisation in the management of the state. And this is what we are seeing.

16:27 Libya is on the verge of civil war, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says, in one of the starkest warnings yet by a world leader over the situation in the country.

16:16 France has rejected the offer by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to mediate in Libya and dismissed talk of any solution that would allow embattled leader Muammar Gaddafi to stay in power  "Any mediation that allows Colonel Gaddafi to succeed himself is obviously not welcome," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said in response to Chavez's proposal, speaking after talks with his British counterpart William Hague.

16:10 Libya is 'on verge of civil war': Russian President Dmitry Medvedev

16:06 More on that Venezuelan bid to mediate in the Libya crisis: "We can confirm Libya's interest in accepting this proposal, as well as the Arab League's" interest, Venezuala's Information Minister Andres Izarra told AFP news agency in Caracas.

He added that Chavez, an ally of Muammar Gaddafi, recently spoke personally by telephone with Libya's embattled strongman to discuss the proposal. France, meanwhile, has declared the proposal unacceptable.

The UN High Commissoner for Refugees has raised its estimate for the number of people who have fled Libya to 160,000, it says on Twitter,"We urgently need your help," the refugee agency says.

16:01 The UN World Health Organisation is warning of risks of epidemics among the tens of thousands of people massed in southern Tunisia after fleeing violence in Libya. "There is not for the moment a humanitarian crisis in the proper sense of the term. But the risks of epidemics are real," a WHO assistant director general, Eric Laroche, told a news briefing.

"We have a concentration of several tens of thousands of people. There are all the ingredients for an epidemic explosion," Laroche said after a visit to the zone where refugees are camped.

He warned of "enormous overcrowding and a lack of hygienic conditions" and said "the pressing need is to have fewer and fewer people who are concentrated there."

"We need to repatriate them by plane and ship and to set up a system to monitor epidemics and provide early warning of contagious diseases."

15:51 The UN World Health Organisation is warning of risks of epidemics among the tens of thousands of people massed in southern Tunisia after fleeing violence in Libya. "There is not for the moment a humanitarian crisis in the proper sense of the term. But the risks of epidemics are real," a WHO assistant director general, Eric Laroche, told a news briefing.

"We have a concentration of several tens of thousands of people. There are all the ingredients for an epidemic explosion," Laroche said after a visit to the zone where refugees are camped.

He warned of "enormous overcrowding and a lack of hygienic conditions" and said "the pressing need is to have fewer and fewer people who are concentrated there."

"We need to repatriate them by plane and ship and to set up a system to monitor epidemics and provide early warning of contagious diseases."

15:44 In Benghazi, Libya's second city and headquarters of the rebel movement seeking to bring down Gaddafi, around 1,000 people have turned out to bury six people killed in the uprising, an AFP photographer in the area has been reported as saying. A crowd of men swarmed around the corniche overlooking the Mediterranean, packing into vehicles to begin the drive to the cemetery, pumping bullets into the air and saying prayers to honour the dead.

Dozens marched in the funeral procession in the town of Ajdabiya, 150 kilometres to the west, holding aloft five coffins en route to the cemetery for burial and firing bullets repeatedly into the air.

15:40 The European Union is to earmark €30 million in aid to cope with the refugee crisis in revolt-hit Libya, EU commissionner for international cooperation Kristalina Georgieva announced.

She made the announcement as she and and Hungarian Minister of State for EU affairs Eniko Gyori toured the Tunisian-Libyan border area.Georgieva says increased EU aid will be provided "to cater for the humanitarian needs, up from the 10 million euros that was allocated earlier this week."

15:38 BBC Monitoring says Libyan state media are continuing to air comments from citizens - and foreigners - condemning foreign media for their "lying" coverage. Al-Libyah TV hosts a round table of poets addressing the "tribes related to us" and saying that "we are all one family".

BBC Monitoring has also picked up a report on al-Libyah TV that 37 billion sedative pills have been seized at a Libyan port. Kadhafi has alleged rebels are under the influence of drugs brought into the country by Al-Qaeda.

15:33 Russian state arms exporter Rosoboron exports lost income from the situation in Libya "amounted to US$4 billion," Sergei Chemezov was quoted as saying by the Interfax and RIA Novosti news agencies. The Arab world is the main export market for Russian arms after traditional partners China and India.

Libyan Defence Minister Yunis Jaber went on a major spending spree during a January 2010 visit to Moscow, signing €1.3 billion worth of deals including for six Yak-130 military planes.

Libya had also been expected to become the first foreign buyer of Russia's new Su-35 fighter jets  and a contract worth US$800 million for 12-15 planes was ready for signing, reports have said.

15:27 Cyber activists have created a group on Facebook calling for a "Day of Anger" tomorrow in the eastern Shiite-majority Saudi region, following the arrest of a Shiite cleric. The group of more than 500 members is calling for protests after Friday prayers in Al-Hufuf, in Eastern Province's Al-Ihsaa governorate, to demand the release of Sheikh Tawfiq al-Amer.

Amer was arrested after calling for a "constitutional monarchy" in the Sunni-dominated kingdom, according to the Rasid website, which specialises in Shiite Saudi news.

The Shiites, who are mainly concentrated in the oil-rich Eastern Province, and make up about 10 percent of the Saudi population as a whole, complain of marginalisation in the kingdom.

The Eastern Province has common borders with Shiite-majority Bahrain, where protests, also organised via social networking site Facebook, against the ruling Sunni dynasty have raged since February 14.

15:23 Indian government asks Malta for a Boeing 747 'daily slot' for two weeks, in bid to transfer Indian nationals evacuated from Libya to New Delhi.

15:11 Indian Naval warships INS Jalashwa and INS Mysore which have been dispatched to evacuate the Indian nationals stranded in strife-torn Libya are set to start their operations from March 8, Navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma said today. "The two warships will reach Alexandria on March 8. Once the numbers are mustered in Tripoli, our ships can be involved in the evacuation exercise," Verma told reporters on the sidelines of a naval seminar.

The ships would wait at Alexandria till the evacuation is over and these would be used to ferry the passengers to Malta, he said.
"What has been worked out with the Ministry of External Affairs is, these ships are not meant to carry passengers for long distances. They are basically troop carriers. So, we would move passengers from Tripoli or Benghazi to Malta," he said.

From Malta the evacuation would take place through private airlines and the aircraft provided by the Indian Air Force.
Asked why the two warships are carrying a complement of Marine Commandos (MARCOS), Verma said that it is now part of Navy''s standard operating procedure for the vessels sailing in the Gulf regions. "This is now our standard routine. Whenever we send our ships in these areas, we have marine commandos on it for the protection of the ships or for the safety of the passenger," he said.

14:44 RAF Special Forces on board Chinook helicopters leave Malta for Crete.

14:17 The Eritrean community in Malta, all of whom have enjoy humanitarian protection status, have appealed to the Maltese government and the international community to help in evacuating 2,000 of their co-nationals who have been caught up in the violence in Libya. During a solidarity march in Valletta, the Eritreans have made public an open letter they have written to Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi where they have asked him to help out to evacuate 2,000 Eritrean nationals who are caught up in Tripoli and another group in Benghasi.

200 Eritreans are said to be hiding from the violence in Benghasi harbour, while many are hiding in other places, as they are being singled out, beaten and killed after being mistaken for African mercenaries imported to Libya by Gaddafi to counter the uprising.

14:07 Libyan oil production has "halved" amid the unrest nationwide, the head of the National Oil Corporation, Shukri Ghanem, has told AFP news agency

13:39 ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo tells journalists in The Hague: "We have identified some individuals with de facto or formal authority, who have authority over the security forces" in Libya.

"They are Muammar Gaddafi, his inner circle, including some of this sons." Ocampo also listed individuals including the veteran Libyan leader's head of personal security, and the head of the external security forces.

13:11 Ghaddafi has recruited some 800 Tuareg separatist fighters from Niger, Mali, Algeria and Burkina Faso to quash a popular uprising against his regime, security sources say. "Eight hundred Tuareg originating from Mali, Algeria and Burkina Faso have been recruited by Libya to fight on Gaddafi’s side," a Malian security source told AFP news agency.

12:57 The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says he will investigate Gaddafi and key aides for suspected crimes against humanity against civilians.

12:44 Security forces in Jado quickly defected from the Gaddafi regime and sided with the people, according to Dushid, a 47-year old merchant, who withheld his last name citing security concerns. "Here the revolution was waged with stones. There were demonstrations, cars were set on fire, the symbols of the 'Green Book' were destroyed and security forces immediately withdrew," he said, referring to Gaddafi’s political treatise. "Policemen and soldiers are people who form part of our neighbourhoods. There are family ties so they joined the revolution," he said.

12:28 Germany will send three ships to evacuate some 4,000 migrants in Tunisia to Egypt, after they fled there to escape the violence in Libya, Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle announced. "The German government has decided to bring migrants from Tunisia to Egypt," Westerwelle told reporters after a meeting with his Slovak counterpart.

"The pictures coming out of Tunisia are overwhelming," he said. "Most of the migrants are Egyptian," adding that the German navy warships were on their way. He added: "I'm working on the assumption that already tomorrow the first operation will begin," Westerwelle said, adding the evacuation is part of a sweeping United Nations mission.

12:24 The Philippines' main Muslim rebel group, the 12,000 strong the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, says the uprising against Gaddafi showed him to be a power-hungry failure, although it thanked him for helping to arm its men. "He vowed to put in place a socialist order in this huge country... however, as the current upheaval shows, the power is still in the hands of the elite led by Gaddafi himself," MILF says in a statement on its website.

However, MILF praises Gaddafi for giving it crucial diplomatic and military support when it began its armed campaign to set up a separate Islamic state in the southern Philippines in the 1970s. "He was the first Muslim leader who boldly declared that he is helping the Moros (Filipino Muslims) in their resistance against... the Manila government," the statement says, adding he gave food, money and supplies. "He also provided the money for the purchase of Belgian firearms and ammunition supplied (to the Muslim rebels)... in 1972."

12:22 The UNHCR says some people fleeing Libya are Somalis and Eritreans who have no safe home to return to. The humantarian organisation is asking other countries to take them in.

12:21 A spokesman at the courthouse in Benghazi has told AFP news agency: "Today it seems like Gaddafi is reinforcing his forces with mercenaries. Witnesses have seen troops moving towards Raslanuf (about 100 km west of Brega). (They are) Chadians. We are waiting to see if they attack or make a reinforcing line before Sirte."

12:20 Korean car manufacturer Hyundai has evacuated all of its employees and has transferred them to Malta on two chartered Vitrtu Ferries boats. The first group of 599 Korean workers have arrived in Malta from Sirt aboard the Virtu's Maria Dolores, while another 170 are on their way on board the Virtu San Gwann, also from Sirte.

12:06 The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says it has begun a massive humanitarian evacuation of people who fled Libya to Tunisia. "Over 50 flights today!" it says on Twitter.

11:59 European Union foreign ministers are being summoned to an extraordinary meeting on Libya in Brussels on March 10, a spokeswoman for the EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton says. The meeting will be "a working lunch," said spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic.

The informal meeting will "assess ongoing developments in Libya and the wider region" and prepare for an extraordinary EU summit called for the next day, March 11, a statement said.

11:51 Spain will send a plane to Tunisia today to ferry aid and help airlift home thousands of Egyptians fleeing unrest in Libya, the foreign ministry announced.

11:40 Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has told El Pais the International Criminal Court will probe up to 15 Libyan leaders over the machine-gunning and bombing of civilians. "We have a pretty clear idea of the formal and informal command structure in Libya. In Libya there seem to be machine-gunnings or bombings of civilians in public squares," he told the newspaper in a telephone interview from The Hague. "These are massive attacks on the civilian population. These are very serious acts, there are hundreds or thousands dead."

11:32 A further 599 evacuees from Libya have arrived in Malta this morning on board the Virtu Ferries' catamaran Maria Dolores. The vessel  sailed from the troubled port of Sirte, a city centred between Tripoli and Benghazi and the seat of national government institutions in Libya. According to a company spokesman, the evacuees are South Korean. Meanwhile supply ship HMS York and a Korean military vessel are expected in Malta later this afternoon.

11:20 The Austrian foreign ministry has asked the central bank to launch an inquiry into a henchman of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi living in Austria, media reports say.

Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger has asked the bank to look into freezing the assets in Austria of Mustafa Zarti, who "might make them available to other representatives of the Libyan regime," a ministry spokesman said.

Zarti, vice-chairman of the Libyan Investment Authority, looked after Gaddafi’s assets in Austria and left Tripoli to take refuge in Vienna on February 21, according to today's edition of conservative daily Die Presse and the weekly News.

11:00 Another Chinese firm has suspended operations in Libya. State-run Metallurgical Corporation of China Ltd. (MCC) says it has halted multi-million-dollar projects in Libya. One contract is with the Libyan government to build 5,000 homes and auxiliary facilities, while another is a civil engineering project related to a cement factory production line.

With the projects only partially complete, the remaining value of the contracts is around 5.13 billion yuan (US$781 million), or about two percent of MCC's total outstanding contracts as of the end of 2010, the company say in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

10:55: NATO has no intention of intervening in Libya but is planning for "all eventualities", alliance chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said.

10:50: The International Criminal Court is set to probe 10 to 15 Libyan officials for alleged crimes against humanity relating to attacks against civilians during the ongoing popular uprising in the country, prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has said in an interview published in Spain's El Pais newspaper today.

10:47: Fattah al-Moghrabi, director of supplies for Brega hospital, has told AFP news agency: "Around two hours ago, warplanes dropped a bomb in the area between the oil company and the residential area. As far as I know, there was no casualties." Moghrabi said 12 people were killed in Brega yesterday, including nine rebels and three pro-Moamer Kadhafi fighters. "Of these three, one had an ID from Niger and two others were black Africans without IDs," he says.

10:40: International Criminal Court to probe 10-15 Libyan leaders over rights crimes: prosecutor

10:22:  New air strike has targeted the rebel-held Libyan town of Brega, residents say. Yesterday clashes between rebels and pro-regime fighters killed at least 12 people in Brega.

10:16 The Arab League said it was against direct outside military intervention, but could enforce a no-fly zone in cooperation with the African Union. Realistically though, only the United States could carry out such an operation. "I think we are a long way from making that decision," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

10:15 Spain became the latest European country to offer help to refugees, saying it would send a plane loaded with humanitarian aid to the Tunisian-Libyan border today. The plane will be used to ferry Egyptian migrants from Djerba to Cairo.

10:09 Oil fell prices have slightly dropped on news of a mediation plan for Libya. Brent crude fell more than US$3 to an intra-day low of US$113.09 per barrel as investors eyed a possible deal brokered by OPEC-member Venezuela. Chavez is a close friend of Gaddafi. The Revolt has ripped through the world's 12th-largest exporter and knocked out nearly 50 percent of its 1.6 million barrels per day output. Oil is the bedrock of Libya's economy, and yesterday’s fighting was centred around an oil terminal.

10:00 Gaddafi's military is reportedly facing an increasingly organised and confident rebel force, which is appealing for international support and looking to take its military successes west towards Tripoli. As the struggle between Gaddafi loyalists and rebels who have taken swathes of Libya intensified, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said a peace plan for Libya from Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez was under consideration.

"We have been informed of President Chavez's plan but it is still under consideration," Moussa told Reuters news agency by telephone this morning. "We consulted several leaders yesterday," he said, without providing a deadline to decide on the plan.

When asked if Gaddafi had accepted the plan, Moussa said: "I don't know, how am I supposed to know that?" When asked if he had agreed to the Chavez plan, Moussa said: "No."

09:54 Gozo Bishop Mario Grech, has proposed that money collected through sacrifices on Ash Wednesday should be donated to the Catholic Church in Libya. In a circular issued in connection with the feast of St Joseph (March 19) he said that the faithful should pray for the unity of families in Malta and for the refugees of the Libya crisis. Referring to the refugees having to flee Libya, he said the international community should offer them shelter and ease their hardship. He pointed out that St Joseph himself had suffered as a refugee when he was forced to flee to Egypt with Mary and Baby Jesus.

09:47 35 local companies have reportedly requested help from the Malta Chamber of Commerce following its call on businesses with interests and investments in Libya to come forward and present their concerns, Chamber president Helga Ellul has said.

The Chamber – Ellul told The Times - is in constant contact with the government and Malta Enterprise over the situation in Libya and expressed satisfaction at the way things were being co-ordinated.

“A number of companies in Malta are entirely dependent on the Libyan market so obviously they are very worried about what is happening over there. There are questions about payments due as well as large quantities of stocks stored in Libya,” Ellul said

09:00 Three Dutch soldiers have been taken prisoner by armed men in Libya during an operation to evacuate civilians, the Dutch defence ministry announced.

The marines belonging to the Royal Dutch Navy have reportedly been held prisoners by men loyal to Muammar Gaddafi – influential paper De Telegraaf reported – adding they were helping with the evacuation from Sirte in northern Libya of two unnamed civilians, one Dutch and another European, in a helicopter.

The marines were attacked after the helicopter landed. The two civilians were handed over by the Libyans to the Dutch embassy and have since left Libya, according to De Telegraaf.

"Intensive diplomatic discussions are underway for the freeing of the prisoners," according to the Dutch defence ministry quoted by news agencies.

The marines and the helicopter were based on board the Dutch frigate Tromp. The warship, which was initially to have taken part in an anti-piracy operation off Somalia, headed on February 24 for the Libyan coast. The helicopter was in Malta and flew out from Malta International Airport on Sunday and joined its mother vessel.

The failure of the rescue operation and the capture of the Dutch marines were not made public earlier for security reasons, De Telegraaf said.

19:16 French engineers have disarmed weapons and dismantled key engine parts of the two Libyan Mirage jet planes that were flown to Malta on February 22 by defecting Colonel’s in the Libyan airforce.

According to a government spokesman, soon after landing, specialists from the UK’s Royal Airforce deactivated the weapons on board the two planes and inspected the fighter jets, while the plane’s French manufacturers were engaged to render all systems safe.

The two jets remain under armed guard by the Armed Forces of Malta.

Speaking during a press conference last Sunday, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said that he had refused the return of the two jets to Libya, after being “personally” asked by the Libyan Prime Minister.

He also said that he had given the orders to refuse landing to a Libyan Arab Airlines ATR-42 plane with 14 declared passengers on board in an unplanned flight to Malta, because there were plane pilots and engineers who intended to take the jets back to Libya.