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		</div><p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/scramble-to-airlift-libya-refugees.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full" title="Refugees, many from the Philippines, wait in line as they cross the border from Libya into Tunisia" src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/min-scramble-to-airlift-libya-refugees.jpg" alt="Refugees, many from the Philippines, wait in line as they cross the border from Libya into Tunisia"/></a></p>
<p>A British-backed emergency airlift of refugees fleeing violence in Libya is continuing as the north African state seems to be descending into open civil war.</p>
<p>Opposition leaders, braced for renewed assaults, pleaded for international air strikes to help them oust Colonel Gaddafi, who retains a strong hold on capital Tripoli and surrounding towns.</p>
<p>But US defence secretary Robert Gates played down prospects of American involvement in a no-fly zone to stop the dictator using air power against his own people.</p>
<p>Mr Gates told a congressional hearing in Washington there had been &#8220;loose talk&#8221; about the military options in Libya, and pointed out that such a zone would require attacks on air defence installations, with the risk of civilian casualties.</p>
<p>The Arab League said it could impose its own no-fly zone in co-ordination with the African Union if the fighting continued.</p>
<p>And Downing Street said David Cameron had discussed the option in telephone calls with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, and the prime minister of Qatar, Hamad bin Jasim bin Jabir Al Thani.</p>
<p>Foreign Secretary William Hague also discussed the idea with General Abdul Fattah Younis al Obidi, Col Gaddafi&#8217;s former interior minister and the one-time head of Libyan special forces who has defected to the rebels in Benghazi.</p>
<p>Mr Hague will hold talks on Libya and the Middle East with his French counterpart Alain Juppe in Paris.</p>
<p>Three passenger planes chartered by the UK Government went into operation on Wednesday night ferrying Egyptian nationals from refugee camps on the Libya/Tunisia border back to their homeland.</p>
<p>The United Nations refugee agency estimated that some 180,000 people had reached Libya&#8217;s borders, with almost 80,000 entering Egypt, a similar number in Tunisia and around 30,000 waiting to cross into Tunisia.</p>
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