photo - EPA/Mohamed Messara

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said Poland will not recognise an insurgents’ council in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi until it can guarantee democratisation of the nation.

Speaking to journalists in Brussels, where PM Tusk is at an EU summit, he said that “Some of the council leaders have not been particularly enthusiastic about democracy and human rights”, though he didn‘t elaborate.

The Opposition National Libyan Council has appointed an alternative government, which is headed by the rebel leader Mahmud Djibril as a stalemate between the regime and rebels emerges in the North African country.

Tusk added it is also too early to talk about any form of Poland’s contribution to a future programme of the humanitarian assistance to Libya.

“The current situation is of a military character,” he said, adding that administrating any humanitarian aid at the moment would pose a great risk to anyone delivering it.

Next Tuesday, Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski will go to London to take part in a meeting of the so-called ‘contact group’ of countries which are interested in being involved in the situation in Libya.

NATO agreed to take over from the US the enforcement of the no-fly zone in Libya, preventing the Gaddafi regime from using air power against the insurgents.

Missile strikes against the regime’s forces continued, Thursday. France said it had hit an air base in central Libya and a government plane after it landed at Misratah airport, a town currently in rebel hands. (mk/pg)