UN to discuss military action in Libya: Puri

The UN security council will meet later this week to discuss whether the current military action in Libya is in line of what its resolution authorised, the top Indian diplomat here has said.

"There will be a substantive discussion…and people will naturally want to look at the text of 1973 (resolution) and then see whether this is compliance or less or more," Hardeep Singh Puri, India's envoy to the UN, told journalists.

Yesterday, the 15-member body rejected a request by Libya to convene an emergency meeting to halt what the country's Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa described as "military aggression" by the US and France.

In a letter on Saturday, Koussa said that the "Council has paved the way for military aggression against Libyan territory."

Last week, the Security Council adopted a resolution drafted by Britain and France, authorising military intervention in the country to enforce a no-fly zone.

India, China, Russia, Brazil and Germany abstained from voting on the resolution, which was co-authored by Britain and France.

The non-permanent members of the Security Council, which abstained, are all aspirants for a permanent Security Council seat, and these countries have been criticized by some observers for not taking a tough stand against Libya.

"At the end of the day that resolution was molded by some members who want to do things quickly on emergency basis and they though that would be the solution to the problem," Puri said on Monday.

"In retrospect, it turns out that's not how events have unfolded."

Puri also noted that one question that the Council will discuss is whether armed rebels are regarded as civilians under the resolution.

"Whether this is a situation of government attack on unarmed civilians…the jury is out on that," he said, pointing out that others described it as a "civil war kind of situation."