London: Libya's opposition leader said on Thursday that rebels needed more weapons and funding, as China and Russia raised concern over revelations that France had supplied arms to civilians fighting Moammar Gaddafi's forces.
Mahmoud Jibril, of Libya's Transitional National Council, said foreign deliveries of military hardware would give the rebels a chance to "decide this battle quickly (and) to spill as little blood as possible." Jibril spoke after meeting Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger and a day after France acknowledged air-dropping weapons to the rebels.
French military spokesman Col. Thierry Burkhard said Wednesday that France had airlifted weapons to Libyan civilians in a mountain region south of Tripoli. The deliveries of guns, rocket-propelled grenades and munitions took place in early June in the western Nafusa mountains, when Gadhafi's troops had encircled civilians.
Britain's government insisted that the French decision to supply weapons fell within the terms of the United Nations Security Council resolution that authorizes international action in Libya.
But China and Russia both questioned whether or not the supplying of weapons contravened the international agreement.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said his ministry had asked France for further details. "We are awaiting a response. If it is confirmed, it's a flagrant violation," of the resolution, he said.
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