NATO to Meet to Mull Ending Libya Campaign

NATO ambassadors gather at 14:30 GMT on Friday to discuss an end to the alliance's six-month air campaign in Libya following the death of Moammar Gadhafi and the fall of his last bastions, diplomats said.

A NATO official said ambassadors from the 28-member alliance would meet in Brussels "with Libya on the agenda of talks".

The meeting was originally set for 13:00 GMT but NATO then pushed it back to 14:30 GMT.

A diplomat said that "for NATO, the essential military development to take into account is the fall of Sirte and not Gadhafi's death, which was never an aim of the mission."

The nations most involved in the war, including Britain and France, "do not want to rush but to halt the operation in orderly fashion."

NATO could in consequence decide to maintain part of its naval and air capacity over the next two weeks "to ensure capability for intervention should the situation require," a diplomatic source said.

In a statement the previous day, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen hailed the end of Gadhafi's "rule of fear" and said NATO "will terminate (its) mission" in coordination with the UN and the National Transitional Council (NTC).

He pinpointed a need for the NTC "to prevent any reprisals against civilians and to show restraint in dealing with defeated pro-Gadhafi forces."

But he added of an end to the mission: "With the reported fall of Bani Walid and Sirte, that moment has now moved much closer."