Italian oil firm Eni, the biggest foreign oil company in Libya that produced 270,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2010, was helping in a financial and fuel assistance package for the rebel National Transitional Council, he said.

Frattini, the latest in a series of high-ranking Western visitors, signed a memorandum of understanding, saying it included an aid package for “huge amounts of fuel and huge amounts of money worth hundreds of millions of euros.”

He did not give precise figures.

“In that memorandum, Italy not only confirmed its recognition of the council as the only representative of the Libyan people but also we took a commitment (from) the Italian company Eni and an Italian bank UniCredit to provide the council for the needs of the Libyan people,” he said.

Eight Libyan army officers appeared in Rome on Monday saying they were part of a group of as many as 120 military officials and soldiers who had defected from Qaddafi’s side in recent days. Other officials have also defected. 

“I think the Qaddafi regime is over and I firmly believe that it is over for a simple reason: we are talking about a person whose closest friends are defecting. He lost his legitimacy in Libya,” Frattini said.

Before Frattini visited, other visitors to Benghazi have included European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, the Polish foreign minister and a senior US diplomat.