PARIS/BENGHAZI (Update 2) - French reconnaissance planes flew over Libya on Saturday, in the first sign that international air strikes may be imminent while Muammar Gaddafi's forces tried to push into the rebel-held city of Benghazi. "There are French reconnaissance aircraft over Libya," a French military source told Reuters at 1415 GMT. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said after an emergency summit in Paris that French jets were already targeting Gaddafi's forces. The 22 participants in yesterday's summit "agreed to put in place all the means necessary, in particular military" to make Gaddafi respect a UN Security Council resolution on Thursday demanding a ceasefire, Sarkozy said. "Our planes are blocking the air attacks on the city" of Benghazi, he said, without elaborating. French planes have been readying for an attack in recent days. Jordan, Morocco, Qatar and the UAE are the Arab nations which attended the summit in Paris on action in Libya. The UAE was represented by Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari also attended in his capacity as current head of the Arab League. The League's Secretary General Amr Mousa also took part. British Prime Minister David Cameron said yesterday that the "time for action has come" on Libya, and "it needs to be urgent", after talks with other world leaders in Paris. "Colonel Gaddafi has made this happen. He has lied to the international community, he has promised a ceasefire, he has broken that ceasefire. He continues to brutalise his own people," Cameron told British television. "And so the time for action has come. It needs to be urgent. We have to enforce the will of the United Nations and we cannot allow the slaughter of civilians to continue." Cameron was speaking from Paris where US, European and Arab leaders had gathered to discuss Libya following the United Nations resolution demanding a ceasefire and approving a no-fly zone. The British premier said it was "a successful coming together of countries including Arab countries who want to enforce the will of the United Nations". "What is absolutely clear today is that Colonel Gaddafi has broken his word, has broken the ceasefire and continues to slaughter his own civilians," he said. "This has to stop. We have to make it stop, we have to make him face the consequences. I think it is vitally important that action takes place, that action takes place urgently." He added that "of course there are dangers, there are difficulties, there will always be unforeseen consequences from taking action". "But it is better to take this action than to risk the consequences of inaction, which is a further slaughter of civilians and this dictator completely flouting the United Nations and its will," he said. The advance by Gaddafi's troops into Libya's second city of 670,000 people appeared to be an attempt to pre-empt Western air strikes which diplomats say will come after an international meeting currently in Paris. A Libyan rebel spokesman said Gaddafi's forces had entered Benghazi while a Reuters witness saw a jet circling over the city shot down and at least one separate explosion near the rebel movement's headquarters in the city. "They have entered Benghazi from the west. Where are the Western powers? They said they could strike within hours," rebel military spokesman Khalid Al Sayeh said. Hundreds of cars full of refugees headed east from Benghazi towards the Egyptian border. One family of 13 women from a grandmother to small children, fled Benghazi. "I'm here because when the bombing started last night my children were vomiting from fear," said one of them, a doctor, sitting crying in the lobby of a hotel on the road to Egypt. In the besieged western city of Misrata, residents said government forces shelled the rebel town again on Saturday and they were facing a humanitarian crisis as water supplies had been cut off for a third day. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was meeting European and Arab leaders in Paris to discuss coordinated intervention in Libya. France, Britain and Canada could take part jointly in an initial intervention, the source said, while the United States could participate later on and any participation by Arab nations would come after that, he said. But Canada would need two more days to get its jets ready, a government spokesman told Reuters. Ambassadors from the 28 Nato states adjourned a meeting in Brussels yesterday to discuss possible Nato involvement in policing Libyan skies till after the talks in Paris.
