France rules out Libya intervention

France today ruled out Western military action against Islamist fighters in southern Libya for the time being, rebuffing an appeal for intervention from neighbouring Niger.
Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, asked about Niger's call for action, said there was no question of putting foreign troops into a region that the United States has identified as an increasingly worrisome new haven for Al-Qaeda-linked militants.
But he said the Western powers were aware of the problem and were drawing up plans to help the Libyan government deal with it.
"No, an intervention, no (that's not being discussed)," Fabius told RTL radio. "But we are going to have an international meeting in Rome at the beginning of March to give Libya more help because it's true that there are terrorists gathering in the south.

Fabius said Britain, Germany, the United States, Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia were all involved in talks on how to help Libya.
"We have to fight terrorism everywhere," Fabius said. "That does not mean we have to have people on the ground, it means we have to help governments that want to get rid of terrorism, which is the case with the Libyan government.