Libyan opposition says Kadhafi forces killed 10,000 people

LUXEMBOURG: Forces loyal to Moamer Kadhafi have killed 10,000 people during the fighting in Libya, with 20,000 missing and 30,000 wounded, a quarter of them seriously, a rebel official said Tuesday.

"We have now about 10,000 killed by Kadhafi soldiers, we have about 20,000 persons missing and about 30,000 injured -- 7,000 of them seriously injured with life endangered," Ali Al Isawi, a representative of Libya's National Transition Council (NTC), told reporters.

"We want more efforts regarding protection of civilians against this aggression," he added after attending talks with EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.

He was there alongside another official, Mahmoud Jibril -- the first time the 27-state European Union as a bloc had received the Benghazi-based rebel Transitional National Council.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said the meeting sent out a "signal of recognition," even though France, Italy and Qatar are so far the only three states officially to have granted the group diplomatic status.

Jibril put to his hosts a "very ambitious transition plan," according to Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, one based on Kadhafi exiting power after 42 years.

Frattini said work would begin on a new national constitution before organising legislative and presidential elections.

Juppe added that it was up to the Libyans to work out how civil society would figure throughout that process. (AFP)