Allies agree to hand over complete control of military campaign but Germany and Turkey still have reservations
Nato agreed to take over the air campaign against ground targets in Libya, putting the alliance in command of all operations and supplanting the coalition of the US, France and Britain that has attacked Muammar Gaddafi's forces for the past week.
The 28 ambassadors of Nato's policy-making North Atlantic council met in Brussels to agree the rules of engagement for the air campaign aimed at protecting civilians against Gaddafi's onslaught, with Turkey and Germany keen to narrow the scope of the operations and France bristling at any constraints on its more gung-ho approach.
The decision means that Nato will take charge of all three aspects of the Libya campaign – enforcing a no-fly zone and arms embargo as well as prosecuting the air campaign on ground targets. The decision, capping a week of squabbling over Nato's role, came in advance of a conference in Londonon Tuesday bringing together more than 40 foreign ministers and international organisations aimed at plotting Libya's future.
"Nato allies have decided to take on the whole military operation in Libya," said Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Nato's secretary general. "Nothing more, nothing less. This is a very significant step."
While Nato has arrived relatively quickly at a consensus on the Libyan campaign, non-stop meetings in Brussels since last Monday have also exposed divisions and stirred furious argument, with France particularly in disagreement with Germany and Turkey.
The Americans are keen to take a back seat on Libya after a week in which they have dominated operations and decisions, meaning that the course of the campaign against Gaddafi will be an unprecedented test for the European side of Nato.
Amid persistent French attempts to belittle Nato's role and make the alliance military machine subservient to a smaller core political leadership of a "coalition of the willing", senior Nato diplomats said the alliance takeover would be undiluted. "There's a clear understanding that the totality of the operation is handed to Nato," said a senior diplomat in Brussels. "No more, no less. When Nato takes over, the coalition is over."
Political and military control of the operations would rest with Nato plus other contributors to the campaign from Arab and African countries.
Another senior Nato source said France could yet cause problems. If Paris considered the rules of engagement agreed as too timid, it could reserve the right to continue to unilateral operations outside Nato's chain of command. The senior diplomat ruled that out, saying it would require a fresh UN mandate.
Key Nato governments are keen to expand Arab and African involvement in the military campaign beyond Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, who have pledged 16 aircraft. "We need more visible and substantive contributions from Arabs and Africans," said the senior diplomat.
Despite French president Nicolas Sarkozy's argument that turning the military campaign into a Nato operation will alienate the Arab world and play into the hands of Gaddafi, Britain believes several Arab countries are pleased about the seemingly imminent Nato takeover.
The London conference will bring together the military coalition with the UN, the African Union and the Arab League to prepare for the humanitarian operation that will be necessary, whatever the outcome of the conflict.
There is also to be a parallel meeting of a smaller group to provide oversight for the campaign. Disagreement persisted yesterday among the allies over whether this group should include only those actively contributing to the campaign, as France prefers, or whether it should involve all Nato members plus Arab allies. The Foreign Office said the smaller meeting would include "all those who have already contributed to the military enforcement of UN security council 1973 and those who are considering doing so".
The French position is politically divisive as it would exclude Nato members such as Turkey and Germany who are not contributing ships or planes. Senior German sources said Berlin could do a U-turn and send ships to help police the arms embargo in the Mediterranean.
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, and Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, took to America's Sunday morning news shows to support the US's role in Libya before a major speech from Barack Obama on Monday.
Gates said the no-fly zone had been a success and could now be maintained with "a lot less effort than it took to set it up." He said the Pentagon was planning to scale back resources as Nato and other countries take on a larger role.
Gates said there was a "possibility of regime itself cracking." Clinton said the the UN was sending a former Jordanian foreign minister as a special envoy to talk to leaders in Tripoli and Benghazi.
On NBC's Meet the Press Clinton said she said they were sending "a clear message" to Gadaffi's supporters. "Do you really want to be a pariah? Do you really want to end up in the international court?"