OTTAWA — Canada is heading into high-level talks on Libya this week without formal offers of assistance for the country as it rebuilds after a bloody uprising.
The prime minister’s chief spokesman says the intent of the meeting in Paris is to determine what the rebels’ National Transitional Council needs.
Dimitri Soudas says Canada can contribute in several ways but the international community first needs to co-ordinate assistance.
“Before you just start putting things into force and implementing them, you actually have to make sure everyone is going the same direction,” he said in a briefing Tuesday.
Soudas said Thursday’s meeting is also not a victory lap for NATO forces, even as military officials say their sustained campaign is seeing life slowly return to normal in many areas.
“The definition of victory is always something that people try to establish,” he said. “Victory to a large extent is democracy in Libya.”
How to help fund Libya’s reconstruction will be a central theme for discussion, with measures to free billions in assets seized from the ousted Gadhafi regime seen as a key step forward.
On Monday, the U.S. State Department said Libya’s rebel leaders should look to retrieve the frozen assets and revive the country’s oil industry to finance its reconstruction rather than rely on aid from abroad.
The UN Security Council released $1.5 billion last week following a dispute between the United States and South Africa, which had feared the release of the assets from U.S. banks would amount to international recognition of the rebels.
Officials also want to ensure that any unfrozen assets will be used for humanitarian goals.
The Paris meeting comes as Libyan rebels pledged to launch an assault within days on Gadhafi’s hometown, the ousted strongman’s last major bastion of support.
The rebels and NATO said that Gadhafi loyalists were negotiating the fate of Sirte, a heavily militarized city some 400 kilometres east of the capital, Tripoli.
Mustafa Abdel Jalil, head of the rebels’ National Transitional Council, said that negotiations with forces in Sirte would end Saturday after the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, when the rebels would “act decisively and militarily.”
Col. Roland Lavoie, a NATO spokesman, said it’s possible Sirte might surrender without a fight.
“We have seen dialogues in several villages that were freed — I’m not saying with no hostilities, but with minimal hostilities,” he said during a briefing.
Lavoie said NATO would continue supporting the rebels as long as civilians in the country are under threat, although the area around the capital, Tripoli, is now “essentially free.”
Ali Tarhouni, a minister in the National Transitional Council, said Tuesday “we have a good idea where (Gadhafi) is. We don’t have any doubt that we will catch him.”
He gave no further details.
A senior Canadian government official, speaking on background, cautioned against reading too much into those claims, noting that over his 40-year dictatorship, Gadhafi became skilled at hiding.
“His capture would obviously be an important line marking a real separation in Libya from not democratic to the new future,” the official said. “But really the importance is the rebuilding.”
Canada’s military involvement in the UN-sanctioned mission is set to expire on Sept. 27 and Soudas said it is premature to discuss whether it will need to be extended.
The cost is estimated to be at least $60 million.
The Canadian Forces are contributing 650 personnel along with CF-18 fighter jets, aerial tankers, a warship and surveillance planes. So far, Canada has dropped 550 bombs on the country, according to statistics provided Tuesday.
Before heading into the meetings, Harper will pay a visit to the NATO airbase in Italy.
— with files from The Associated Press