UK to crackdown on Libya oil sanctions loopholes

UK works to close loopholes on Libya oil sanctions, which may be funding his regime's fight against rebels, ahead of meeting on Thursday in Rome

Britain is working to close any loopholes in international sanctions aimed at preventing Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's government from funding itself through oil exports, a British minister said on Wednesday.
Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt also told Reuters in an interview it was a "good question" whether Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi remained in charge, though Britain had no information to suggest he had been killed.
The Libyan command structure was believed to be "diffuse," though Burt said "it would appear still to be very closely related to him [Gaddafi]."
United Nations Security Council sanctions ban deals with Libya's state-owned National Oil Corporation and the European Union has imposed sanctions on Libyan energy companies. The sanctions do not prevent Libyan rebels from exporting oil.
Western diplomats have voiced concern that Gaddafi's government is dodging sanctions, importing gasoline by using intermediaries, for example.
"Consistent efforts have been made in recent weeks to work with oil suppliers and the infrastructure of oil in order to cut off the opportunities of selling it and the money going back to the Gaddafi regime," Burt said.
An international contact group on Libya meets in Rome on Thursday and British officials say it will intensify diplomatic, economic and military pressure on Gaddafi.
US BELIEVES GADDAFI ALIVE
The Libyan leader has not been seen in public since a NATO missile attack last Saturday struck a house in his compound in Tripoli. Libyan officials said Gaddafi survived but his youngest son and three grandchildren were killed.
CIA Director Leon Panetta told NBC television on Tuesday US intelligence officials believed Gaddafi was still alive.
When asked if NATO countries could consider air drops of humanitarian aid to conflict-torn parts of Libya, Burt said no options were ruled out, but there were practical difficulties with air drops.
Burt earlier held a meeting with human rights activists and several Libyans who had recently been in Tripoli to hear their accounts of life in the Libyan capital.
"It's a picture of misery in Tripoli and people waiting to be liberated," he said.
A Libyan opposition supporter who was in Tripoli until last week and attended the meeting with Burt said Tripoli felt like a prison.
"Every 20 to 30 metres there is a checkpoint. Kids ... with machine-guns, stopping people and searching cars and asking you where you are from and where you live," he said, speaking on condition he that he not be identified.