At a meeting of alliance foreign ministers in Qatar on Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also said up to 3.6 million people could need help in Libya, more than half the population, as rebels press their fight against Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi.
“Libya faces a humanitarian crisis following an unprecedented level of upheaval and violence,” the WFP said in a statement. “The future of the public subsidized food distribution system in Libya is very worrying to WFP and food security partners.”
Aid agencies have been struggling to reach civilians in the cities of Benghazi and Misrata, where residents and migrant workers have faced shortages of basic foodstuffs, a lack of medical supplies and sporadic water and electricity supplies.
“According to available information, mainly from the eastern parts of the country, the food that is in the country is being consumed, without being adequately replenished,” the WFP said.
“This means that less food is likely to be available to the general population, as well as vulnerable groups, and the number of those in need of food assistance could increase dramatically.”
The WFP said the rebel-held eastern ports of Tobruk and Benghazi were reported to be fully functional.
“There is an urgent need for commercial liners to resume operations to these ports as this will facilitate humanitarian deliveries and commercial imports of basic items as well,” it said.
A vessel carrying enough food for 40,000 people for a month, chartered by the WFP, reached Misrata last week.
“Access to Western Libya is limited and WFP is concerned for areas that have no access to replenish basic supplies,” it said, adding that it was trying, in consultation with the Red Cross and the Libyan Red Crescent, to organize deliveries and provide humanitarian assistance to such areas.
International powers meeting on Libya’s future called for the first time for Qaddafi to step aside, but NATO countries squabbled publicly over stepping up air strikes to help topple him. In a victory for Britain and France, which are leading the air campaign and pushed for an unequivocal call for regime change, the “contact group” of some 16 European and Middle Eastern nations, plus the United Nations, the Arab League and the African Union, said Qaddafi must go.
“Qaddafi and his regime has lost all legitimacy and he must leave power allowing the Libyan people to determine their future,” a final statement obtained by Reuters said.
The wording was much tougher than at a previous conference two weeks ago. Participants also said they would work to set up a financial mechanism to help rebels, fighting to end Qaddafi’s 41-year rule, run the eastern region they control.
They also called for a political settlement, to be decided by the Libyan people, and an end to attacks against civilians.
While there was agreement on the principle of removing Qaddafi, there were divisions over how to make that happen.
Disagreements surfaced on British and French calls for greater participation in the NATO air campaign against Qaddafi’s heavy weapons and on arming the rebels.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague called for more alliance members to join attacks on ground targets and his French counterpart, Alain Juppe, called for heavier military pressure on Qaddafi’s troops to convince him to leave power.
Reflecting frustration that NATO air power has not been more decisive, Juppe, called for better coordination with rebel forces on the ground in choosing targets.
Rebels attending the Doha meeting said they expected more support, saying NATO was using “minimum” power and needed to step up attacks on Qaddafi’s heavy weapons.
Britain and France, western Europe’s two main military powers, are delivering most of the air strikes on Qaddafi’s armor since President Barack Obama ordered US forces to take a back seat.
Other NATO countries are either keeping their distance from the campaign or enforcing a no-fly zone.
A gap appeared at the meeting between NATO hawks and doves.
Belgian Foreign Minister Steven Vanackere said the March 17 UN resolution authorizing NATO action in Libya — to protect civilians from Qaddafi’s government forces — ruled out arming civilians and he saw no need to boost air power there.
In another disagreement, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle expressed reservations about an Italian call to create a fund from frozen assets to aid the rebels. “The question is, is it legal? The answer is we don’t know,” he said.
The rebels said they would ask for $1.5 billion in aid for civilians.
A spokesman for the rebel national council at the Doha talks said the coalition was considering supplying arms which he said should go to soldiers who have defected from Qaddafi’s army.
He said the rebels only had “primitive weapons” taken from Qaddafi’s troops.
The contact group, whose members include Qatar, Iraq, Turkey and other Middle East nations as well as NATO members, will meet again in Italy in early May.
At the eastern front on Wednesday, rebels at Ajdabiyah said they were exchanging rocket fire with Qaddafi’s forces from a point about 40 km (25 miles) east of the long contested oil port of Brega, which the government holds.
Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim lashed out against the West’s “imperialist way of thinking,” accusing world powers of trying to impose political change on Libya.
Germany said it had expelled five Libyan diplomats for intimidating the country’s citizens living there. Rebel spokesman Shammam said the rebels wanted to increase exports of crude oil to secure humanitarian aid rather than cash. Qaddafi’s forces have attacked oil fields in the rebel east to choke off exports and Shammam said the insurgents were only exporting a minimal amount.
The African Union said it was pursuing its peace mission despite rebel rejection of any plan that left Qaddafi in power. “It is urgent that the members of the international community coordinate their efforts to find a quick solution,” said the AU’s chief diplomat, Jean Ping.
Moussa Koussa, a former Libyan foreign minister who fled to Britain last month, was in Doha on the sidelines of the contact group talks to meet the rebels, the British government said. But the rebel spokesman said they did not plan to speak to him.
In Libya’s remote Western Mountain region, rebels have repelled troops loyal to Qaddafi and killed at least seven of them, an insurgent spokesman said on Wednesday.
Adel Al-Zintani told Al Jazeera television from the city of Zintan in Western Libya that three rebel fighters were also wounded in the fighting.
“We have the bodies of seven soldiers from Qaddafi’s brigades and three wounded who are undergoing medical treatment,” Zintani said.
“The fighters in the town of Nalut have repulsed the (Qaddafi) brigades and defeated them,” he added.
The Western Mountain region is a sparsely populated area on the border with Tunisia inhabited by ethnic Berbers, many of whom joined an uprising to end his 41-year rule that began in February.
