NATO allies divided over bigger role in stabilising Libya

NATO will on Thursday consider a bigger role for the alliance in Libya to help a new unity government push back the growing Islamic State threat, but some allies want the focus to be on a naval mission to stop refugees teeming into Europe.

Just three days after world powers met in Vienna to offer aid to the UN-backed unity government in Tripoli, NATO foreign ministers will discuss how the alliance's ships in the Mediterranean could stop arms reaching militants.

"NATO has a clear mandate that we should stand ready to support the new government in Libya if so requested," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said before the meeting. "We are not addressing any potential combat operation," he said.

Libya remains highly sensitive for NATO following its 2011 air campaign that helped rebels topple Muammar Gaddafi but then saw the country descend into anarchy. Allies are also divided over whether NATO should be training a new Libyan military, targeting arms smugglers or stopping flows of migrants across the Mediterranean as calmer summer weather approaches, something Italy and Spain support.

"We have to define how we coordinate European Union and NATO efforts to reduce migrant flows," said Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, who just returned from Libya.

Many in NATO are looking to its so-called Active Endeavour counter-terrorism mission in the Mediterranean, which was set up after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001, to switch roles and link up with an EU naval mission.

Diplomats say Libya would have to make a formal request for NATO and the European Union to go after smugglers in Libyan territorial waters and NATO would possibly even a U.N. Security Council resolution, which Russia has said it is unlikely to grant because it believes NATO's 2011 air campaign went too far.

The EU's "Sophia" mission is operating in international waters near Libya, but it is too far out to destroy boats used by people smugglers, catch traffickers or head off migrants trying to reach Europe by sea from Libya.

Another area of support for NATO would be helping set up a Libyan Defence Ministry in the lawless country, and to work with the European Union to train police and border and coastguards. Britain would like to see that training in Libya itself, whereas Germany is adamant its personnel will not be on the ground in the country and that training should be in Tunisia.

The new Libyan government, which arrived has yet to establish itself across the country, is also wary of being seen as a foreign puppet and is keen to show its independence. "We have a NATO offer to the Libyan government to do more training and capacity building there, which the Libyans have not yet opened formal conversations with NATO about," said a senior US state department official.

Islamic State gained control over the Sirte last year and has built up its most important base outside Syria and Iraq in the Libyan coastal city. However, it has struggled to hold on to territory elsewhere in Libya.