Qatar says only Libyans can decide their future

The leader of Qatar, the only Arab state to have recognised Libyan rebels, said on Thursday military operations in Libya were only aimed at protecting civilians and Libyans would decide their own future.

"The Libyan question is a humanitarian issue to protect civilians and nothing else. So it is the Libyan people who will decide their future," the emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani said in comments to Qatari pan-Arab TV station Al Jazeera.

The tiny Gulf Arab state recognised Libyan rebels on Monday, a day after a senior Libyan rebel official said Qatar had agreed to market crude oil produced from east Libyan fields no longer under the control of leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Energy-rich Qatar was also the first Arab country to contribute planes to police the UN-backed no-flying zone over Libya last Friday - a move that helped the United States to argue that the Western-led air strikes have Arab support.

Arab states are wary of association with a Western-led military intervention with no clear end that reminds them of the 2003 invasion of Iraq where Washington helped create an entire new political system after bringing down the previous rulers.

Reports of civilian casualties have increased this nervousness at a time when many Arab countries are witnessing protest movements by angry populations.

The Arab League supported the creation of a no-fly zone but has not gone any further. NATO has agreed to take over all military operations from a coalition led by the United States, France and Britain.

Qatar's emir said the Arab League should play a bigger role.

"The international community has to be there because of the weakness of the Arab League," he said. "After the changes that have taken place hopefully the Arab League will play its role because it is capable of doing what NATO is doing."