UK urges Libyan rebels to keep order in Tripoli

LONDON: Britain urged the rebel Libyan National Transitional Council on Monday to maintain order and not pursue reprisals after rebel fighters swept into the heart of the capital Tripoli.

It also called again on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to step down, after his troops shelled parts of central Tripoli on Monday. Britain, which has played a leading role in international efforts to oust Gaddafi, wants to avoid a repeat of the chaos and bloodshed that swept Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein by a U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Prime Minister David Cameron has cut short a summer break in southwest England and returned to London where he will chair a meeting of the government's security council later on Monday. "First and foremost, the British government would call on Gaddafi to leave now and spare further bloodshed," foreign office minister Alistair Burt told BBC Radio 4. Burt said Gaddafi's fate was a matter for the Libyan people, noting that the rebels wanted him arrested and detained rather than allowed to go into exile.

"The most important thing is to make sure that civil order is preserved, that there is food, that there is water, there is power -- all the things that people need to make sure their daily lives go on," Burt told BBC TV in an earlier interview. "The evidence of what has happened in other cities would suggest that when the National Transitional Council has been in charge instead of the Gaddafi regime things have worked perfectly well, perfectly smoothly," he added.