US meets with Gaddafi representatives: official
US envoys recently held a rare meeting with representatives of Muammar Gaddafi's regime and urged the Libyan strongman to cede power, a US official said.
The one-off meeting came after the United States and other Western and regional powers on Friday recognised the rebel Transitional National Council as Libya's legitimate authority.
US officials "met with regime representatives to deliver a clear and firm message that the only way to move forward is for Gaddafi to step down," the US official said in Washington on condition of anonymity.
"This was not a negotiation. It was the delivery of a message," the official said.
"We have no plans to meet again, because the message has been delivered," she said.
The official declined to explain details about the meeting. CNN, quoting a spokesman for Gaddafi's regime in Tripoli, said that the talks took place on Saturday in neighboring Tunisia.
Gaddafi, who has ruled Libya for four decades, has been hanging on to power despite rebel advances and four months of NATO-led bombings.
Western and regional powers, in the fourth so-called contact group meeting on Libya, agreed Friday in Istanbul to consider the rebels as the country's legitimate rulers - a move that gives them access to vital funds.
The US official said that the United States wanted to express major powers' views "directly and unequivocally" in the aftermath of the talks in Istanbul.
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