Libya crisis: Cameron and Hague vow to rescue stranded Britons

Planes and ships heading to Libya to bring Britons home amid claims the UK has been slow to respond to the situation

David Cameron and William Hague have pledged to make the repatriation of British citizens from Libya the highest priority of the Foreign Office in response to criticism in Britain that the government has responded slowly to the crisis.

Planes and ships are being chartered to bring people home safely, the prime minister said in Qatar as he sidestepped questions about whether Britain would endorse French plans for tough new sanctions against Libya.

In London the foreign secretary promised to send "as many planes as necessary" to evacuate British nationals, adding that the government had not ruled out deploying military flights to the chaos-stricken country.

Hague said a specially chartered flight was on its way to Libya, a second would depart later on Wednesday and a third would be sent on Thursday morning, if necessary.

Royal Navy frigate HMS Cumberland is to arrive off Libyan waters on Wednesday night, Hague said.

At least 300 Britons are in the Tripoli area, struggling to leave the country after scheduled flights were cancelled by commercial operators.

"We will send as many planes as necessary to bring home British nationals," Hague said in a statement.

He added: "Our preference clearly is for people to leave on commercial flights as they have been doing, or on our specially arranged charter flights, as they will now be able to do, rather than to send in military flights without permission, which is obviously riskier for the safety of all those involved, although we don't by any means rule out doing that."

Hague said as well as the Britons in and around Tripoli, there were up to 170 who were in a "perilous and frightening" situation in the desert, with most working for oil companies. He urged those individuals to contact the Foreign Office.

Hague said Britain was "one of very few" countries to have sent rapid deployment teams to Libya and had a "robust specialist presence on the ground which will be strengthened further tonight". He said staff had also been deployed to Libya's border with Tunisia and the Foreign Office had 50 dedicated staff working "night and day".

There has been criticism from British citizens in Libya over the government's response. Glen Mundy from International School Tripoli told the Guardian it has been difficult to get information from the foreign office on how they can leave the country. "We need to be informed better. We feel a little neglected. We feel as if other embassies are organising quicker," he said.

Speaking earlier at a press conference with his Qatari counterpart in Doha, Cameron said: "In Libya the situation remains gravely concerning. We are doing everything that we can to protect British nationals and to assist them in leaving that country.

"We stand by to help in any way that we can, whether that is through ships, whether that is through chartering aeroplanes. The crisis centre at the Foreign Office is working round the clock to make sure we bring people home safely and that we deliver them back to our shores.

"There is no higher priority right now for the Foreign Office than for dealing with this issue because clearly what is happening in Libya is very uncertain, very dangerous. It is right that British nationals should come home and we will do everything we can to help them."

The prime minister condemned the violent response of the Libyan authorities. Cameron said: "We have been very clear with respect to Libya that what is happening there is unacceptable. The use of violence against their own people, the appalling scenes we have seen on our television screens ? this is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to stand.

"We played our part on the UN security council in making sure there was a strong presidential statement last night. This is what the UN is for ? to make sure it takes a clear stand. If countries visit this sort of terror on their own people the UN should take a very clear stand."

But Cameron stopped short of endorsing a call by the French president Nicolas Sarkozy for sanctions to be imposed on Tripoli. Speaking later at a question-and-answer session with students at Qatar University, Cameron said: "We should only put in sanctions where we have real problems with the country, such as Burma [which placed Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest] or Iran, which is trying to get nuclear weapons. Sometimes, yes, we do apply sanctions because we think that is in the interests of the world. But on the whole we are a pro-free trading country."

The prime minister said he was in favour of a strongly worded UN security council resolution. "Would I like this to go further and have full UN security council resolution? Yes I would. Do I think we should send a very clear warning to Colonel Gaddafi and the Libyan armed forces that what they are doing is wrong and against the law? Yes, I think we should."

The prime minister said the best way to censure Libya was through the UN rather than a group of countries acting together. "It would be better if the world could move ahead as one. This can be done through the UN security council. That is the best way. We will be making further steps over the coming days to make that clear."

Cameron was also highly critical of the way in which Tony Blair embraced Muammar Gaddafi in 2004, though he said the former prime minister was right to reach out to Libya after it abandoned its WMD programme.

"Clearly it was right to encourage, and then to welcome, Libya to give up its WMD. That was a good move forward. But I have always taken the view that that relationship needed to have some clear parameters. I have been clear right from the start that it should never have included the idea of releasing [Lockerbie bomber] al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the biggest mass murder in British history. That should have been completely off the table."

? The Foreign Office has urged British citizens in Libya who have not yet made contact to try to do so and has issued a hotline number: 020 7008 0000

Nicholas Watt

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