France and Britain Urge Stronger NATO Action in Libya - by ALAN COWELL and KAREEM FAHIM

France and Britain urged NATO on Tuesday to intensify airstrikes against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces and called on the alliance to do more to shield noncombatants from loyalist attacks.

The remarks could well embolden rebels who have proved unable to hold on to terrain captured from loyalist forces in weeks of advances and retreats along the coastal highway leading westward from the insurgents’ redoubts in eastern Libya.

The comments by William Hague, the British foreign secretary, and Alain Juppé, the French foreign minister, also appeared to signal a rift within the alliance only eight days after it assumed command from the United States for the air campaign over Libya. NATO rejected the French and British criticism.

Note EU-Digest: the EU should take matters in their own hands and end this Gaddafi charade as soon as possible before more lives are lost.

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