French President Nicolas Sarkozy has met with visiting Libyan opposition leaders seeking support for their cause, a day after the United States stopped short of granting the opposition Transitional National Council (TNC) full diplomatic recognition.
President Sarkozy met with council leader Mahmoud Jabril in Paris on Saturday. Officials have not released any details of the meeting.
The TNC delegation met with U.S. national security adviser Tom Donilon and other officials in Washington on Friday. After the meeting, the White House released a statement calling the TNC a "legitimate and credible" voice for the Libyan people, but stopped short of a full diplomatic recognition of what Jabril was seeking.
Meanwhile, explosions continued to hit the Libyan capital, Tripoli, Saturday.
Outside the city, mourners buried 11 people, reportedly killed in a NATO airstrike Friday. Commemorative gunfire and angry chants punctuated the funeral.
A Libyan government spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, said the airstrike killed 11 imams in the eastern city of Brega. The alliance responded by saying it is very careful in its selection of targets and had attacked a military command and control site in Brega.
NATO later said it could not confirm or deny civilian casualties.
On Friday, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi assured his people that he was alive and in a place where NATO bombs could not reach him. His comments came in an audio message carried on Libyan state television, after an Italian official said there were unconfirmed reports that Gadhafi was "probably" wounded after weeks of NATO air strikes.
Separately, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says he will seek arrest warrants next week for three people considered responsible for crimes against humanity in Libya.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo did not reveal the names of the suspects in his statement Friday, but Mr. Gadhafi is expected to top the list. Those charged will face accusations of murder and persecution.
Since February, Colonel Gadhafi's forces have carried out a brutal crackdown against anti-government demonstrators.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
