Far from over

United Nations countries extended a warm welcome to the new Libyan leadership on Tuesday, as they raised the country's new flag for the first time at the UN headquarters in New York.

Speaking before a high-level conference on Libya's future, United States President Barack Obama said NATO-led airstrikes would continue as long as Gadhafi loyalists posed a threat to Libyan civilians, a vow echoed by British Foreign Secretary William Hague.

"The liberation of Libya belongs to the people of Libya," Obama said, adding that "at the same time, Libya is a lesson in what the international community can achieve when we stand together as one."

Obama lauded his country's European NATO allies, who he said were critical to the efforts that toppled longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi in August.

"It's our European allies, especially the United Kingdom and France and Denmark and Norway, that conducted the vast majority of airstrikes protecting rebels on the ground," he said in a speech that went on for 12 minutes, despite UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon's request for speakers to observe a three-minute limit.

Obama added that "it was Arab states who joined the coalition, as equal partners," and that it was Libya's neighbors, "including Tunisia and Egypt, that have cared for the Libyans in the urgent humanitarian effort that continues today."

Need for international aid

Although the tone of the meeting was set by the rebels' success, Obama warned that Libya faced a number of challenges. The country is still threatened by unreliable water and electricity supplies, as well the return of waves of refugees who fled the civil war. The country's constitution also has yet to be drafted.

Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the leader of Libyan's National Transitional Council (NTC), said a new government would be formed in the next seven to 10 days.

He also thanked the international community for its support, while appealing for help in rebuilding the country after a conflict which he said claimed at least 25,000 lives. Despite being a "rich country," the NTC leader said Libya required international aid.

The speakers at the UN special meeting repeated their pledges to give frozen Gadhafi assets to Libya, but otherwise there was no talk of concrete aid plans.

Sarkozy calls for action in Syria

French President Nicolas Sarkozy meanwhile labeled NATO's success in Libya a sign that the times of colonialism were over. In an address calling on the people of Libya to reconcile their difference, he said: "The whole world is looking to you."

Sarkozy also took advantage of his speech to make a swipe at the Syrian government, which has been repressing a popular uprising since spring of this year.

"I wish the Security Council would assume all responsibilities for the protection, using appropriate methods, for the Syrian people against the repression of the condemned regime [in Damascus]," Sarkozy said.

Gone for good

Britain's Foreign Secretary Hague read a speech by Prime Minister David Cameron, warning all countries against offering Gadhafi asylum. Hague said there was no statute of limitations on the crimes against humanity Gadhafi is accused of committing.

On Tuesday, the NTC gained a powerful symbol of international recognition. Rather than Gadhafi's green banner, the pre-Gadhafi Libyan tricolor with a crescent moon and star took its place beside the 192 other UN member flags, after the UN General Assembly recognized the NTC as Libya's official authority on Friday.

Author: Christina Bergmann, New York / dl
Editor: Andrew Bowen