A day after international powers met in Paris and agreed to hand over more than $15 billion to the rebels who overthrew Qaddafi last week, the European Union, a main trading partner, rescinded a range of sanctions and officials from the National Transitional Council told financiers about their initial rebuilding plans.

The NTC’s representative in London said that work on putting right the damage of 42 years of eccentric one-man rule and of six months of civil war should not wait until Qaddafi is found and the last bastions of armed support for him are defeated.

“As long as Tripoli, the capital, is stabilized and secure and safe, which it almost is now, and the overwhelming majority of other cities and towns, then Libyans can get on with the process of transition and stabilization and the new political process,” Guma El-Gamaty told the BBC.

In the eastern city of Benghazi, seat of the uprising, an NTC official said the release of funds by Western powers, which are backing them with NATO air strikes meant the NTC now had to show Libyans it was capable of governing. “Before we had the excuse that we didn’t have money when things went wrong,” he said. “Now we don’t have the excuse.”

Gamaty reaffirmed the council’s commitment to a document that lays out what he called a “clear road map” to democracy, including a constitution to be drafted within eight months, a referendum and then full elections in 2013.

“By the end of about 20 months the Libyan people will have elected the leaders they want to lead their country,” he said.

In Tripoli, residents were beginning to savor a return of normal life. A group of municipal street sweepers in high-visibility vests were picking up litter and spent bullet casings on Martyrs Square, known under Qaddafi as Green Square.

NTC fighters had removed some roadblocks on a main road along the shoreline and more food stores were open, although water supplies and power remained erratic.

On a billboard, the NTC had posted a public announcement: “For A United And Free Libya.” Among other notices one was asking people not to fire in the air in celebration. Occasional volleys could still be heard.

NTC education chief Soliman El-Sahli said that Libya’s schools would reopen on Sept. 17, despite some bombed-out classrooms, scarce transport and a curriculum until this year based on Qaddafi’s personal “Green Book” — an eclectic account of the “Brother Leader’s” views of the world.

One unknown in the process of installing an elected president and Parliament is when the timetable will start running. The document says the process would begin once the NTC declares Libya “liberated” from Qaddafi. Its leaders have said the war will not end until he is found “dead or alive.” So it remains uncertain when they might declare “liberation” achieved.

The NTC’s reconstruction minister, Ahmad Jehani, and Aref Nayed, a member of the council’s rebuilding team, met experts in post-conflict rebuilding from groups including the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and USAID in Paris on Friday.

US and French officials said the meeting was mainly about listening to the Transitional Council’s needs

The rebel officials said Libya is counting on quickly restoring oil production to revive its economy and five international oil firms are already back and working to resume operations.

Despite having access to some of the tens of billions of dollars Qaddafi had invested abroad, the new leaders will also need short-term aid and longer-term loans to help the North African state stave off a humanitarian crisis.