RAF flies £140m unfrozen cash assets to Libya

[Gerald]

The RAF has flown £140m of Libyan banknotes (280m Libyan dinars) to Libya after an assets freeze aimed at Col Muammar Gaddafi was lifted.

The cash, printed in the UK, is the first tranche of £950m that will be handed to Libya's Central Bank.

A Whitehall official said the money should be available for cash machines and banks in Libya very quickly.

Meanwhile, the BBC has learned that David Cameron set up a unit to block fuel supplies to Col Gaddafi's forces.

The secret "Libya oil cell" also ensured that petrol and diesel continued to get through to the rebels in the east, BBC deputy political editor James Landale said.

The Whitehall-based unit was made up of a handful of civil servants, ministers and military figures.

It played a crucial role in starving the regime's war effort of fuel while making sure that the rebels could continue taking the fight to Gaddafi, Whitehall officials told our correspondent.

Our correspondent said the unit was the idea of International Development Minister Alan Duncan. He was unavailable for comment on Wednesday evening.

The former oil trader convinced the Mr Cameron in April that part of the solution to the conflict lay in oil, our correspondent said.

One Whitehall source said: "If you didn't have the fuel, you couldn't win the war. So our aim was to starve the west of fuel and make sure the rebels could keep going.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14734420


Note: 1 September 2011 Last updated at 00:42 GMT