The African Union (AU) on March 24 invited representatives of Muammar Gaddafi's government, the Libyan opposition and others to talk in Addis Ababa on March 25.

The union's chairman Jean Ping said Ping told reporters that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi could send his Prime Minister and that officials from the European Union, United Nations Security Council, and neighbouring Arab countries had also been invited to Ethiopia to discuss the Libyan crisis.
Meanwhile, NATO General Secretary Anders Fogh Rasmussen on March 24 said NATO had agreed to take command of enforcing the no-fly zone. However, he said, other aspects of the operation would remain in the hands of the current US-UK-France coalition for now.

At the same time, the UN Security Council convened a third special session this week to hear and deliberate the latest report of the UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon on the situation in Libya since the day the UN imposed a no-fly zone over the country.

In another development, an international conference on the humanitarian situation in Libya and Yemen began at the Arab League (AL) headquarters in Cairo .


Addressing the opening ceremony, AL Assistant Secretary General for Social Affairs, Sima Bahous, said it was essential to boost efforts aiming at ensuring the delivery of humanitarian aid to countries affected by unrest.

The conference was held under the sponsorship of AL Secretary General Amr Moussa and in cooperation with an international humanitarian forum in Britain .

Libyan government spokesperson Mussa Ibrahim on March 24 said n early 100 civilians had been killed so far in the air strikes launched by the Western alliance.
On the same day, UN General Secretary Ban ki-Moon said about 340,000 people have fled from Libya to seek shelter and around 9,000 others were still trapped along Libya’s borders with Tunisia and Egypt.

Libyan people are on the brink of an enormous humanitarian crisis if the fierce fighting continues and food prices increase, he warned./.