Libya crisis: UK and allies must plan for every eventuality, says Cameron

PM says aim now is to 'isolate and pressurise' Gaddafi regime, but plays down prospect of arming Libyan opposition forces

David Cameron has stressed that the UK and international allies must plan "for every eventuality" in Libya, though he appeared to play down suggestions that the UK might directly arm opposition forces.

The prime minister said Britain's immediate focus was to exert maximum effort to "isolate and pressurise" Muammar Gaddafi's regime, during a brief press conference held with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, who is visiting London.

Pressed on the situation in Libya and the plans being put in place to ramp up the pressure on Gaddafi to step down, Cameron said it was the job of leaders and presidents to "look around the corner" and plan for every eventuality.

He vowed that the Libyan people "would not be left to their fate" in the face of some "very immediate dangers" from Gaddafi.

"As I said, we should be planning now to see what we can to do to stop that," said Cameron.

But pressed to give further details of comments made on Monday to the Commons in which he said that the government "should consider" arming the opposition, the prime minister applied more measured tones. He told journalists the government should be making contact and getting "a greater understanding" of the opposition forces, which have occupied Benghazi and control large parts of the north African country.

"We are trying to step up our contact with them so we can get to know them better, what their intentions are," he said. "I don't think we should go beyond that for now, but clearly we hope this will come to an end more quickly."

The international community should be working out what it can do to "step up the pressure and keep that regime as isolated as it can be and hope that will bring it to an end, but be prepared for what might lie ahead", said the prime minister.

This was despite "all sorts of legal and political difficulties", as well as "difficulties of resources".

He said that the immediate priority was both the evacuation of British citizens from Libya, and applying "maximum possible pressure" both internationally and nationally.

The next stage was planning for the potential humanitarian crisis that could unfold unless events came to a quick end, he said.

But Cameron did not rule out the need for military action on the ground, if Gaddafi continued to use violence against his own people.

"It is not acceptable to have a situation where Colonel Gaddafi can be murdering his own people, using aeroplanes and helicopter gunships and the like," he said. "And we have to plan now to make sure that if that happens we can do something to stop it, and that's why I have said it's right for us to plan ? look at plans ? for a no-fly zone. That's why I've asked the chief of defence staff to do that.

"And yes, we should also be making contact with, getting a greater understanding of, the opposition forces that are now in Benghazi and in control of quite a lot of the country.

"We are trying to step up our contact with them so we can get to know them better ? what their intentions are. And I don't think we should go beyond that for now, but clearly we hope this will come to an end more quickly.

"But I think our job is to try and look around the corner and plan for every eventuality, and I note that other allies in Nato and the US are doing exactly the same thing. And that is right."

He added: "What I'm going to be doing today, tomorrow and in the future is making sure that we are doing everything we can to get the international community to think ahead about what might be necessary to try and bring this to an end as quickly as possible."

Cameron, who chaired the national security council this morning, said discussions involved looking at what more could be done with allies to ensure events in north Africa and the Middle East led to a "democratic awakening and not a time of risk and difficulty".

Cameron confirmed on Monday that Britain supported sanctions agreed by the EU, including an arms embargo, an assets freeze and visa ban. The prime minister spoke to the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, later in the day, when the two leaders agreed that French and British experts should work together on "policy options", and that there should be an early European council meeting to discuss further measures to isolate the regime.

European leaders are likely to meet towards the end of next week to discuss how to broaden and strengthen sanctions against the Libyan regime in an attempt to force Gaddafi to step down, according to the prime minister's spokesman.

H�l�ne Mulholland

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