No ground forces going to Libya, UK insists

LONDON - Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague insisted Friday that international allies would not deploy ground troops in Libya, even if a military stalemate drags on between Muammar Qaddafi's forces and rebel fighters.

Hague told BBC radio that Britain would not consider deploying troops, or supplying weapons to the rebels, even if the country's opposition continued to struggle to advance on Qaddafi's strongholds in western Libya.

"There is going to be no ground invasion of Libya, that is forbidden by the United Nations resolution — it is not what the opposition want, and it is not what we want," Hague said.

However he insisted that Qaddafi would be soon ousted.

"I think time is against the Qaddafi regime. There is no future for Libya now with the Qaddafi regime," Hague said.

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Hague canceled a planned visit to South America this week to lead Britain's efforts on seeking an end to the conflict in Libya.

Alan Charlton, Britain's ambassador to Brazil, said the trip had been pulled because Hague was "directing his focus on Libya" and preparing for the meeting of an international contact group in Doha next Wednesday.

"The decision was not taken lightly. The prime minister asked him not to leave the country, so as to focus fully on the participation of the U.K. in the coalition and the conference in Qatar," Charlton wrote on his official blog.

In Scotland, prosecutors said Friday they had interviewed Libya's ex-foreign minister Moussa Koussa on Thursday as part of an investigation into the 1988 bombing of a passenger jet over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Koussa, also an ex-Libyan intelligence chief, fled Tripoli last week and has since been talking with British diplomats and security officials.

Scotland's most senior lawmaker Alex Salmond said he believes Koussa may be able to provide information on who authorized the bombing, which killed all 259 people aboard the Pan Am jet and 11 people on the ground. Many of those killed were Americans.

Prosecutors would not disclose where they and Scottish police officers had met Koussa on Thursday or comment on the details of the meeting. Koussa's whereabouts have not been disclosed by British authorities.

British government officials said Koussa was being treated as a witness, rather than a suspect in the case.

"As the investigation remains live, and in order to preserve the integrity of that investigation, it would not be appropriate at this time to offer any further details of the meeting, or the details of ongoing inquiries," Scotland's prosecution service said in a statement.

In 2003, Libya acknowledged responsibility for the bombing, but Scottish authorities believe Koussa could offer more information on the individuals involved.

"No doubt officers will question him again if required as part of their ongoing investigation," Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond said Friday.

Only one man, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, has ever been convicted on charges related to the terrorist attack. Al-Meghrahi was granted a compassionate release from a Scottish prison in August 2009 on the grounds that he was suffering from prostate cancer and was sent back to Libya.

A second man, Amin Khalifa Fhimah, stood trial with al-Megrahi at a special court convened in the Netherlands and was acquitted.

In France, families of those killed when a French plane with 170 passengers aboard was blown up in 1989 over Niger have demanded that Koussa also answer questions about that attack.

Britain's Foreign Office has said it has not received any other requests from authorities seeking to question Koussa.