Paris: Libya's Revolutionary Council wants to establish a secular democracy that would respect oil contracts awarded under Muammar Gaddafi if it toppled the Libyan leader, members of the council said in Paris.
Ali Zaidan, one of 31 members of the council, said the rebels could overcome Gaddafi's forces in ten days if the coalition of western powers continued its UN-mandated strikes.
"We want the elimination of the Gaddafi regime to be done by the Libyans themselves," Zeidan said in Paris late on Tuesday.
"The wish of all the Libyan people is that Gaddafi stays alive and is then arrested and tried for all his crimes against humanity," he told reporters.
Meanwhile, a political contact group for Libya, bringing together the US, France, Britain and other coalition partners, will meet for the first time in London next week, the French foreign minister said.
"We have just taken the initiative with my British colleague to invite, next Tuesday in London, a contact group composed of all the countries participating in the operation, as well as the African Union, the Arab League, and all interested European nations," Alain Juppe said.
"The political leadership is not Nato, but the contact group," he said.
