Foreign Secretary William Hague, speaking from the Qatari capital Doha where the contact group meeting on Libya is being held, said aiding rebel-held east was on the agenda.

"One of the things we will look at today is a funding mechanism for those states that wish to provide funding to maintain basic services in the east of Libya, the opposition-held areas, so that life can go on," he told BBC radio.

"I wasn't suggesting that we will be donating to that mechanism but of course we're working here with countries that may well be doing so.

"We are helping with other non-lethal assistance. We have sent telecommunications equipment that we believe will save lives."
He told Sky News television: "We are discussing how to help those civilian areas, how to get funding to them, for instance from some of the Gulf states."