NATO is ten weeks away from launching a naval mission off Libya as part of a controversial US-backed plan to close the Western Mediterranean migrant route to Europe, officials said today.
The advanced state of preparations for the operation was revealed by Italian Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti as leaders of the US, Britain, France, Germany and Italy met in Germany.
Their talks were due to touch on the migrant crisis and instability and Islamist infiltration in Libya.
Modelled on an existing NATO operation in waters between Turkey and Greece, the Libya mission is set to be approved by NATO leaders at a Warsaw summit on July 7, Pinotti said in an interview with Italian daily La Stampa.
The plan forms part of a broader Italian strategy to stop migrants using Libya as a launchpad for reaching Europe by flying those with no claim to asylum back to their home countries, which will be paid to set up reception centres to reintegrate them.
The plans have been slammed by refugee and rights groups and the EU has also come under fire from Pope Francis for what the Catholic leader sees as an arbitrary distinction between asylum seekers and economic migrants.
But it became clear today that the strategy has already secured US President Barack Obama's approval.
"The United States would be supportive of a NATO mission in the central Mediterranean," a senior US official told reporters.
Germany has indicated it will support a naval mission to stop more weapons flooding into Libya, but wants it under EU rather than NATO command, officials said.
Britain is likely to be uncomfortable with that in the run-up to its June referendum on EU membership.
More than 350,000 migrants have reached Italy on boats from Libya since the start of 2014.
Aid organisations say over half have a legitimate claim to refuge from persecution or conflict.
But this year's influx has been overwhelmingly from sub-Saharan Africa, a region the European Union considers safe for people to be returned to.
Under Italy's proposals, an existing NATO mission, Operation Active Endeavour, would be "recalibrated" into one overseeing the Libyan coast.
NATO's operation to stop migrant boats reaching the Greek islands from Turkey is the first of its kind for an alliance still seeking to define its role in the post-Cold War world.
An operation off Libya would be more complicated given the presence in some coastal regions of Libya of Islamic State fighters.
The NATO presence could act as a deterrent to traffickers putting to sea with their human cargoes.
