China says U.N. should lead efforts in post-war Libya (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) – The United Nations should lead post-war efforts in Libya, China's Foreign Minister told the U.N. chief, adding that Beijing was willing to help rebuild the north African country.

In a phone call with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi suggested Beijing wants bodies such as the U.N., rather than Western governments alone, to coordinate international involvement in post-war Libya.

This would give China a say in decisions, despite the leading role Western powers played in defeating the forces of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi.

"The United Nations should play a leading role in post-war arrangements for Libya, and China encourages the United Nations to strengthen coordination and cooperation with the African Union and Arab League," Yang said, according to the ministry website late on Tuesday (www.mfa.gov.cn).

China is "willing to work alongside the United Nations to promote a rapid stabilization in Libya and a swift course toward reconciliation and reconstruction," said Yang.

"The international community should continue offering humanitarian aid to Libya," he added.

Beijing has yet to formally recognize the rebel forces as Libya's new leaders, but Yang's comments add to signs that Beijing wants a stake in guiding Libya's future as Gaddafi's support crumbles and rebels take control of Tripoli.

On Tuesday, China urged Libya to protect Chinese investments and said their oil trade benefited both countries, after a Libyan rebel warned that Chinese oil companies could lose out after the ousting of Gaddafi because Beijing did not offer enough support to the rebels.

China and Russia have a tradition of opposing intervention in sovereign states, even when Western governments favor military action on humanitarian grounds.

China did not use its U.N. Security Council veto power in March to block a resolution that authorized the NATO bombing campaign against Gaddafi's forces, but it then condemned the strikes and urged compromise between his government and rebels.

Since then, Beijing has courted Libyan rebels by hosting their leaders and sending envoys for talks.

China is the world's second-biggest oil consumer, and last year it obtained 3 percent of its imported crude from Libya.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Ken Wills and Daniel Magnowski)

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Yemen PM returns from Riyadh after attack on Saleh (Reuters)

SANAA (Reuters) – Yemen's prime minister became the first senior politician injured in a June assassination attempt on President Ali Abdullah Saleh to return home from Saudi Arabia, a government official said on Tuesday.

The official told Reuters Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Megawar arrived in the capital Sanaa on Tuesday evening and was greeted at the airport by hundreds of government officials and supporters.

Megawar had been receiving medical treatment in Riyadh, along with a number of other presidential aides and Saleh himself, who has repeatedly said he will return to the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state.

Yemen has been paralyzed by months of protests against Saleh's 33-year authoritarian rule.

As violence persisted, the death toll has risen in the south with Islamist militants regularly launching attacks on soldiers, security officials and tribesmen fighting alongside the army.

Four soldiers were killed and some 40 wounded on Tuesday when militants attacked troops stationed south of Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province, where militants, emboldened by months of upheaval, have taken control of three towns since March.

A security official said two militants were also killed in clashes that broke out on Tuesday and continued into the evening.

Separately, two tribesmen were killed by militants in the coastal town of Shaqra, which they seized last week.

Some tribesmen have sided with the Yemeni army to try to flush militants out of Abyan, setting up checkpoints along roads and last month launching an offensive that has so far failed to recapture much lost ground.

Yemeni warplanes on Monday night killed 5 militants in an airstrike on a checkpoint they had occupied in the al-Arqub area of Abyan, a security official said.

Tribesmen said they saw militants load dead bodies into a car and speed off toward Shaqra.

Residents of Lawdar, another Abyan town, said a suspected suicide bomber driving a motorcycle laden with explosives blew himself up by accident at dawn on Tuesday on the outskirts of the city before reaching his target.

The United States and Saudi Arabia fear that upheaval in Yemen is giving militants, who the government says belong to al Qaeda, more room to launch attacks on the region and beyond.

Opponents of Saleh accuse him of exaggerating the threat of al Qaeda and even encouraging militants in order to illustrate the dangers of Yemen without him and pressure Riyadh and Washington into backing him.

(Reporting by Mohamed Sudam and Mohammed Mukhashaf; Writing by Isabel Coles and Jason Benham; Editing by Maria Golovnina)

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Gaddafi must face trial in Libya before ICC: rebels (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi must face trial in Libya before being transferred to the International Criminal Court (ICC), said Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, spokesman for the rebel National Council Tuesday.

Ghoga told Egyptian state television that Gaddafi, who was indicted by the ICC in May for war crimes, was still in Libya and there was no chance that he will escape.

"Gaddafi is still in Libya, if not in Tripoli, then he may have sneaked to the center (of the country) or the south," Ghoga said.

"We are keen to capture Gaddafi and to try him in Libya before he is tried in the criminal court," he added.

Libyan rebels were searching for the Libyan leader who ruled the North African Arab country for 42 years after they stormed his headquarters in Tripoli Tuesday.

Asked if the rebels would allow Gaddafi an escape route, Ghoga said: "This is impossible. There is no chance for him to escape at all. Gaddafi has no choice."

(Reporting by Ali Abdelatti; Writing by Sami Aboudi)

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U.S. envoy visits Syria town, U.N. launches inquiry (Reuters)

AMMAN, Aug 23 Reuters) – The U.S. ambassador made a surprise trip to a southern Syrian town on Tuesday, his second visit to an area rocked by protests against President Bashar al-Assad and a move likely to antagonize the authorities in Damascus.

As a U.N. humanitarian team toured the country, security forces raided the countryside near the city of Hama, killing at least five people in assaults to subdue pro-democracy demonstrations, local activists said.

Houses were stormed in several villages and towns in the al-Ghab Plain, farmland east of the Mediterranean coast that contains the Roman city of Apamea, they said.

"Shabbiha (pro-Assad militiamen) accompanied the military. We have one name of the five martyrs, Omar Mohammed Saeed al-Khateeb," said an activist in Hama, which has been under military siege since it was stormed at the beginning of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan on August 1.

The United Nations says 2,200 people have been killed in Syria and the U.N.'s human rights council launched an investigation on Tuesday into the violence, including possible crimes against humanity, despite objections from Russia, China and Cuba.

The bloodshed was wrought by Assad's crackdown on a 5-month-old popular uprising that prompted the United States and European Union to widen sanctions against Syria last week and to call on the Syrian president to step aside.

At the United Nations, Western nations circulated a draft resolution calling for sanctions against Assad, influential members of his family and key associates but Russian opposition loomed.

The resolution -- drafted by Britain, France, Germany, Portugal and the United States and obtained by Reuters -- calls for freezing financial assets of Assad, along with 22 other Syrians. It also calls for a ban on weapons sales to Syria.

But Vitaly Churin, Moscow's ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters it was not time for sanctions on Damascus.

Russia, which has veto power over U.N. resolutions, is a major arms supplier to Syria. China, South Africa, Brazil and India also have indicated they would have trouble supporting punitive measures against Damascus.

In Jassem, a town about 30 km (19 miles) east of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, residents said U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford toured an area where activists say Syrian forces killed at least 12 people in May in response to major unrest.

Ford angered Damascus seven weeks ago when he went to Hama in a gesture of solidarity with the city where huge anti-Assad protests occurred in June and July. At the start of August, Assad sent troops into Hama to crush demonstrations.

Damascus accused Ford of inciting unrest -- a charge Washington denied -- and banned Western diplomats from leaving Damascus and its outskirts.

"He came by car this morning, although Jassem is swarming with secret police," a resident told Reuters. "He got out and spent a good time walking round. He was careful not to be seen talking with people, apparently not to cause them harm."

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland confirmed Ford spent about four hours in Jassem. She said he had informed Syrian authorities only after the trip was complete.

"In this case he informed the Syrian Foreign Ministry after the visit and he made clear to them that the reason that he didn't inform them before the visit was because they haven't been approving any visits by anybody, anywhere," she said.

Ford, the first U.S. ambassador to Damascus since Washington withdrew its envoy in the wake of the 2005 assassination of Lebanese statesman Rafik al-Hariri, has been outspoken in criticizing authorities for firing at protesters.

Nuland said Ford spoke with a number of Jassem residents, including some associated with the opposition, and expressed support.

"His message back to them was that we stand with them and that we admire the fact that their action has been completely peaceful," she said, adding that Syria's official reaction to the trip had so far been "relatively muted."

International condemnation of Syria's harsh repression of street unrest escalated this month after Assad sent the army into several cities including Hama, Deir al-Zor and Latakia.

Arab states broke months of silence to call for an end to the violence and neighboring Turkey, which for years had close relations with Damascus, has also told Assad to rein in his security forces.

U.N. INQUIRY

The U.N. Human Rights Council launched an international commission of inquiry into Assad's crackdown, condemning what it called "continued grave and systematic human rights violations by Syrian authorities such as arbitrary executions, excessive use of force and the killing and persecution of protesters and human rights defenders."

The 47-member forum easily adopted a resolution presented by the European Union, the United States and Arab countries including Saudi Arabia.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement: "Urgent and proper action is paramount to investigate these violations, identify those responsible and ensure that perpetrators of violations are held accountable."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised the creation of the investigative commission and urged Assad to step aside.

Separately on Tuesday, the EU agreed to extend sanctions against Syria, adding 15 people and five institutions to the list of those already targeted by travel bans and asset freezes.

Syria's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Faysal Khabbaz Hamoui, rejected the council resolution as unbalanced.

"This once again confirms that there is a determination to politically condemn Syria and pass over any proposal for opening and reform that exists in this country," he said in an appeal before the vote for members to reject the resolution.

The delegations of Russia, China and Cuba all took the floor to denounce what they called interference in Syria's internal affairs and said they would vote against the text. Ecuador also voted against the resolution.

The vote came after Syrian forces shot dead three people in the city of Homs on Monday, the same day that a U.N. humanitarian team visited the city, according to activists.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces and loyalist gunmen known as "shabbiha" opened fire after hundreds of people took to the streets.

The official Syrian news agency SANA said gunmen had opened fire at police in front of the government building in Homs as the U.N. team was passing by, killing one policeman.

Assad's government has blamed armed groups for the violence and has said more than 500 soldiers and police have been killed since the unrest erupted in March.

(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman and Andrew Quinn in Washington; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Paul Simao and Bill Trott)

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Libyan rebel to give Gaddafi hat to his father (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) – A Libyan rebel, wearing a flamboyant military peaked hat that he said he had seized from Muammar Gaddafi's bedroom in his Tripoli compound, said he planned to give the trophy to his father.

Speaking to Britain's Sky News, the bearded fighter identified only as al-Windy, was among the fighters who stormed Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Tuesday, seizing weapons and trophies.

"I just went inside his room, Gaddafi's bedroom, and I was really, I was like 'Oh my God'. I am in Gaddafi's room. Oh my God. Then this thing happened. I found this, oh my goodness," the rebel said, taking the red and grey hat embroidered with gold thread off his head.

"I am going to give this to my dad as a present because he has suffered a lot from Gaddafi and from Gaddafi followers," the rebel, who also wore a huge gold chain over his drab olive-green T-shirt and carried what looked like a ceremonial mace.

Gaddafi, reputed for his eccentricities, was once crowned Africa's "king of kings" by those from south of the Sahara.

The fighter said he had fought with rebels in the Western Mountains region before they advanced on Tripoli and overran Gaddafi's main stronghold early this week.

Pro-Gaddafi forces initially tried to defend the vast Bab al-Aziziya compound, the seat of Gaddafi's political power and the principal base of loyalists seeking to rescue his 42-year rule, but their resistance later faded, the reporters said.

"I am really proud for this moment that the Libyans have waited for 42 years," al-Windy said.

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Syrian tanks shell Latakia, death toll reaches 34 (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian forces shelled Sunni Muslim districts in Latakia, residents said, the third day of a military assault on the northern port city aimed at crushing protests against President Bashar al-Assad.

The Syrian Revolution Coordinating Union, a grassroots activists' group, said six people, including Ahmad Soufi, 22, were killed in Latakia on Monday, bringing the civilian death toll there to 34, including a two-year-old girl.

Assad, from Syria's minority Alawite sect, has broadened a military assault against towns and cities where demonstrators have been demanding his removal since the middle of March.

The crackdown coincided with the August 1 start of the Muslim Ramadan fast, when nightly prayers became the occasion for more protests against 41 years of harsh Baathist party rule.

Syrian forces have already stormed Hama, scene of a 1982 massacre by the military, the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, and several northwestern towns in a province bordering Turkey.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told Assad to halt such military operations now or face unspecified consequences.

"This is our final word to the Syrian authorities, our first expectation is that these operations stop immediately and unconditionally," Davutoglu said in Turkey's strongest warning yet to its once close ally and neighbor.

"If these operations do not stop, there will be nothing left to say about the steps that would be taken," he told a news conference in Ankara, without elaborating.

Turkish leaders, who have repeatedly urged Assad to end violence and pursue reforms, have grown frustrated. Davutoglu held talks with the Syrian leader in Damascus only last week.

The Syrian Revolution Coordinating Union said troops also assaulted villages in the Houla Plain north of the city of Homs on Monday, killing eight people as they raided houses and made arrests. The organization said four people were killed in Homs during similar attacks.

FAMILIAR PATTERN

In a now-familiar pattern, tanks and armored vehicles deployed around dissident neighborhoods of Latakia and essential services were cut before security forces began raids, arrests and bombardment, residents said.

"Shelling has renewed on al-Raml al-Filistini (home to Palestinian refugees) and al-Shaab districts. There is heavy machinegun firing on Sulaibeh, al-Ashrafieh, al-Quneines and al-Ouneineh and the citadel neighborhoods," one resident, a business owner who asked not to be named, said by telephone.

"People are trying to flee but they cannot leave Latakia because it is besieged. The best they can do is to move from one area to another within the city," another witness said.

Thousands of people fled a Palestinian refugee camp in Latakia, some fleeing gunfire and others leaving on orders from the Syrian authorities, a U.N. official said.

"Between 5,000 and 10,000 have fled, we don't where these people are so it's very worrying," said Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the UNRWA agency which cares for Palestinian refugees. "We have a handful of confirmed deaths and nearly 20 injured."

The Palestinian presidency in the West Bank city of Ramallah urged Damascus to safeguard the lives of Palestinian refugees in al-Raml camp in Latakia.

A grassroots activist group, the Local Coordination Committees, said it had the names of at least 260 civilians, including 14 women and two infants, killed this month.

It said the actual toll was likely to be far higher with scant information so far from the hard-hit city of Hama, still besieged by troops and secret police.

Syria has expelled most independent media since the unrest began, making it hard to verify reports from the country.

Tanks and navy ships shelled southern parts of Latakia on Sunday, residents and rights groups said.

Nightly anti-Assad rallies after Ramadan prayers have drawn around 20,000 people in different areas of the city, said one witness, a university student.

The official state news agency SANA denied Latakia had been shelled from the sea and said two police and four unidentified armed men were killed when security forces pursued "armed men who were terrorizing residents ... and using machineguns and explosives from rooftops and from behind barricades."

The U.S. State Department said on Monday it was unable to confirm that the Syrian navy had shelled Latakia.

"However, we are able to confirm that there is armor in the city and that there is firing on innocents again in the pattern of carnage that you have seen in other places," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

ALAWITE ELEMENT

Unlike most Syrian cities, which are mainly Sunni, Latakia has a large Alawite population, partly because Assad and his father before him encouraged Alawites to move from their nearby mountain region by offering them cheap land and jobs in the public sector and security apparatus.

Latakia port has played a key role in the Assad family's domination of the economy, with Bashar al-Assad's late uncle Jamil having been in virtual control of the facility, and a new generation of family members and their friends taking over.

Assad replaced the governor of the northern province of Aleppo, SANA reported, after pro-democracy protests spread to the provincial capital, Syria's main commercial hub.

"The minority regime is playing with fire. We are coming to a point where the people in the street would rather take any weapon they can put their hand on and fight than be shot at or arrested and humiliated," said one activist.

"We are seeing civil war in Syria, but it is one-sided. The hope is for street protests and international pressure to bring down the regime before it kills more Syrians and drives them to take up arms," he added, asking not to be named.

Rights groups say at least 12,000 have been detained during the uprising. Thousands of political prisoners were already in jail. Amnesty International says it has listed 1,700 civilians killed since mid-March. Washington has put the toll at 2,000. Damascus says 500 police and soldiers have been killed.

The assaults by Syrian security forces have drawn increasing condemnation from the West, Turkey and more recently from Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

Washington wants Europe and China to consider sanctions on Syria's vital oil and gas industry. Germany called for more European Union sanctions against Syria on Monday and urged the U.N. Security Council to discuss the crackdown again this week.

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry in Ramallah, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, Reporting by Jonathon Burch, Tulay Karadeniz and Ibon Villelabeitia in Ankara; editing by Michael Roddy)

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China launches first aircraft carrier on maiden sea trial (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) – China launched its first aircraft carrier for a maiden run on Wednesday, a step likely to boost patriotic pride at home and jitters abroad about Beijing's naval ambitions.

The long-awaited debut of the vessel, a refitted former Soviet craft, marked a step forward in China's long-term plan to build a carrier force that can project power into the Asian region, where seas are spanned by busy shipping lanes and thorny territorial disputes.

"Its symbolic significance outweighs its practical significance," said Ni Lexiong, an expert on Chinese maritime policy at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law.

"We're already a maritime power, and so we need an appropriate force, whether that's aircraft carriers or battleships, just like the United States or the British empire did," he said in a telephone interview.

The carrier "left its shipyard in Dalian Port in northeast Liaoning province on Wednesday morning to start its first sea trial," said the official Xinhua news agency, describing the trip as a tentative test run for the unfinished ship.

The aircraft carrier, which is about 300 meters (984 feet) long, plowed through fog and sounded its horn three times as it left the dock, Xinhua said on its military news microblog.

Xinhua said that "building a strong navy that is commensurate with China's rising status is a necessary step and an inevitable choice for the country to safeguard its increasingly globalised national interests."

Chinese citizens said the carrier launch showed their country deserved more respect from the rest of the world, despite problems it faces at home.

A high-speed train crash last month left many Chinese people bemoaning what they called officials' reckless hunger for showcase technological breakthroughs.

"An aircraft carrier is the mark of major powers," Pan Chunli, a 29-year-old IT technician in Beijing told Reuters.

"China has grown dramatically. The whole world should take a fresh look at China, viewing it as a rising power that it has the ability to defend its rights and territory."

Retired Chinese navy Rear Admiral Yin Zhuo told state-run television that his country intended to build an air carrier group, but the task would be long and difficult.

"As for forming a carrier group, I think that will take at least ten years," he told a Chinese television broadcast on the carrier launch.

PRESTIGE AND POWER

Last month, China was refitting the old, unfinished Soviet vessel bought from Ukraine's government, and sources told Reuters it was also building two of its own carriers.

"China has had a longstanding fascination with the national prestige attached to aircraft carriers, and this first sea trial may be seen as a crucial step toward the goal of achieving great naval power status," said Chengxin Pan, an expert on China at Deakin University in Australia

"But for many neighbors, it may symbolize something different and more unsettling. It is inevitable that neighboring countries will react with some alarm, especially given recent disputes in the South China Sea as well as the maritime incident between China and Japan last year," he said.

If Beijing is serious about having a viable carrier strike group, however, it will need three carriers, Ashley Townshend at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney told Reuters in an interview before the debut of the vessel.

China would also have to develop support ships and aircraft for any carrier group, Townshend said, noting it would take some 10 years to develop a viable carrier strike group.

In China's neighborhood, India and Thailand already have aircraft carriers, and Australia has ordered two multi-purpose carriers. The United States operates 11 carriers.

"The Philippines should not be concerned with this development. An aircraft carrier is an offensive tool but I don't think China has the intention to use it to bully its neighbors," the former chief of the Philippines' navy, retired Admiral Ferdinand Golez, told Reuters.

Before the launch, a Pentagon spokesman played down the likelihood of any immediate leaps from China's carrier program.

LONG-STANDING DISPUTES

But that is just one part of China's naval modernization drive, which has forged ahead while other powers tighten their military budgets to cope with debt woes.

China has been building new submarines, surface ships and anti-ship ballistic missiles as part of its naval modernization.

The country's growing reach at sea is triggering regional jitters that have fed into long-standing territorial disputes, and could speed up military expansion across Asia.

In the past year, China has had run-ins at sea with Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines. The incidents -- boat crashes and charges of territorial incursions -- have been minor, but the diplomatic reaction often heated.

"Overall, the perception of a rapidly rising and potentially threatening China is likely to be reinforced and Beijing will face enormous challenges in dispelling such a perception," said Pan, the lecturer at Deakin University.

Last week, Japan warned that China's naval forces were likely to increase activities around its waters.

"This is showing that China is in the process of acquiring capability to control South China Sea as well as East China Sea," said Yoshihiko Yamada, a professor at Japan's Tokai University about the carrier trial.

China's defense budget has shot up nearly 70 percent over five years, while Japan, struggling with public debt, has cut military outlays by 3 percent over the same period, a Japanese government report said.

"A single, solitary aircraft carrier floating on the sea, without the accompanying forces, doesn't constitute a battle force," said Ni, the Shanghai professor.

"It would be a sitting duck if you tried to send it out."

(Additional reporting by Sabrina Mao and Sally Huang in Beijing; Manny Mogato in Manila; Jeremy Laurence in Seoul; Michael Perry in Sydney; and Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo; Editing by John Chalmers)

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Tripoli says NATO strike kills dozens of civilians (Reuters)

ZLITAN, Libya (Reuters) – Libyan officials said on Tuesday dozens of civilians had been killed in a NATO strike on a cluster of farmhouses east of Tripoli, but the alliance said it hit a legitimate military target.

A strike causing large numbers of civilian casualties could undermine support in some NATO nations for a campaign to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi that has proved much longer, bloodier and more costly than its backers had expected.

A spokesman for Gaddafi's government, who took foreign reporters to the scene of the strike, said 85 people had been killed when missiles struck farm compounds in the village of Majar, about 150 km (90 miles) east of Tripoli.

He said the dead were 33 children, 32 women and 20 men.

Standing on a pile of rubble, Moussa Ibrahim told reporters: "This is a crime beyond imagination. Everything about this place is civilian."

There was no evidence of weaponry at the farmhouses but neither was there immediately visible blood or body parts.

Government officials provided footage that appeared to show men combing through the rubble at one of the bomb sites at night retrieving human remains, including the bodies of two children.

This correspondent, taken to the hospital in Zlitan by Libyan government officials, counted 20 body bags in one area, some of them stacked one on top of the other.

Most of the dead at the Zlitan hospital appeared to be men but some were children. Medical workers opened some of the body bags. One contained the body of a child who appeared to be about two years old. Another had inside the remains of a child.

In total, reporters saw about 30 bodies at the Zlitan hospital. Officials said the rest of the people killed in the air strike had been taken to other hospitals, but Reuters was unable to verify that information independently.

Hundreds of men also attended a burial in Majar, carrying a parade of simple wooden coffins, draped with flags.

"They (NATO) do not differentiate between soldiers, children and old people," said Abdulkader Al-Hawali, a fifth-year medical student at the hospital in Zlitan.

At a news conference in Brussels, a NATO military spokesman said the target of the strikes was a military staging area which was being used to support government attacks on civilians.

"This was a legitimate target and by striking it NATO has reduced the pro-Gaddafi forces' ability to threaten and attack civilians," Colonel Roland Lavoie told a regular briefing.

"We do not have evidence of civilian casualties at this stage, although casualties among military personnel, including mercenaries, are very likely due to the nature of the target."

NATO forces have been mounting regular attacks, from both sea and air, on targets around Zlitan, where the alliance says government forces are killing and persecuting civilians who are trying to end his 41-year rule.

Gaddafi has denied attacking civilians, and says the NATO bombing campaign is an act of colonial aggression aimed at stealing Libya's plentiful oil.

Libya's conflict began in February when thousands of people protested against Gaddafi.

Western powers say the Libyan leader must relinquish power but despite months of pounding by NATO bombs, defections from his inner circle and international sanctions, Gaddafi is showing no signs of wanting to quit.

In an effort to tighten the noose, the European Union is set this week to widen sanctions by adding a Libyan oil firm and a government administrative department to a blacklist, bringing to 49 the number of Libyan entities targeted by EU sanctions.

"These measures show the determination of the international community in maintaining the isolation of the regime in Tripoli," the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Power and petrol shortages have been worsening in Gaddafi's Tripoli stronghold, deepening public frustration.

NATO said Tuesday its warplanes had also bombed a Libyan warship docked in Tripoli after observing that weapons were being taken from it that were expected to be used in attacks.

REBEL RESHUFFLE

Gaddafi's rebel opponents, meanwhile, are struggling to advance toward Tripoli and their administration in the eastern city of Benghazi was rocked by the assassination last month of the rebel military chief.

Mustafa Abdel Jalil, leader of the rebel National Transitional Council, dismissed the council's executive arm on Monday in what analysts said was an effort to restore the opposition's credibility.

If confirmed, the casualties in the village of Majar would not be the first time that NATO activity in Libya has resulted in civilian deaths.

In June, NATO admitted it destroyed a house in Tripoli in which Libyan officials said nine civilians were killed. The alliance blamed a missile malfunction.

Shortly afterwards, the Libyan government reported almost 20 people were killed in a strike on the home of a member of Libya's 12-strong Revolutionary Command Council, led by Gaddafi.

Libyan officials say hundreds of civilians have been killed since the NATO bombing campaign began. But in most cases they have not supplied firm proof while in some instances the evidence provided has been contradictory.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Ould in Algiers, Joseph Nasr in Berline, and David Brunnstrom in Brussels; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Giles Elgood and Janet Lawrence)

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North Korea artillery lands near South island in disputed waters (Reuters)

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea has fired artillery in the direction of a South Korean island on Wednesday in an apparent training exercise near a tense maritime border off the west coast, media and a government official said.

A South Korean Defense Ministry official said shells fired by North Korea landed in the waters off Yeonpyeong island but it was not clear whether it was inside the South's territorial waters. Yonhap news agency said South Korea fired back with its artillery.

"Three shots were heard. One shell landed near the Northern Limit Line," Yonhap quoted a military official as saying.

The incident took place near the disputed Northern Limit Line (NLL), the scene of several skirmishes over the past decade including two deadly attacks last year that killed 50 South Koreans.

Yonhap said the shelling started at around 2pm local time (0500 GMT). South Korea replied with three rounds artillery fire.

Fishing boats in the vicinity called to port and yeonpyeong residents have been evacuated into emergency shelters, media reports said.

Markets barely reacted to the incident.

Tuesday's flare-up occurred near Yeonpyeong island, which was attacked by the North last November. Four people were killed in the attack.

Previous incidents triggered by the North's violation of the NLL, unilaterally drawn up by the U.S. military at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, have led to clashes by the two sides' navies killing dozens of sailors.

Tensions had eased since the start of the year since the North's renewed calls for dialogue, including the resumption of six-way talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear arms program.

(Reporting by Ju-min Park and Jack Kim; editing by Jeremy Laurence and David Chance)

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U.S. drone strike kills 21 in northwest Pakistan (Reuters)

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – A U.S. drone fired two missiles into Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region on the Afghan border on Wednesday, killing at least 21 suspected militants, including foreigners, local officials said, in one of the biggest attacks in weeks.

The drone targeted a house 3 km (2 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town of the region, known to be a hotbed of Taliban and al Qaeda militants.

"The dead included local Taliban as well as some Arabs and Uzbek nationals," one intelligence official in North Waziristan said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

It was not immediately known if any high-profile militants were among the dead. Militants often dispute official account of such strikes.

Initial reports said five militants were killed in the attack but officials said the toll had gone up to 21 after more bodies were found from the rubble of the house.

Drone strikes have been a major source of friction between the United States and Pakistan, with ties at their worst since U.S. Special Forces killed al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in a secret raid in a Pakistani garrison town in May.

While Pakistan publicly opposes the strikes, it has privately allowed them and cooperated with the United States determining targets.

But since the May commando raid, which Pakistan considers a grievous breach of sovereignty, the powerful head of the army, General Ashfaq Kayani, has called for a halt.

Washington appears determined to press forward with drone attacks, which its sees as an effective tool to stem cross-border attacks by militants on foreign forces in Afghanistan.

(Writing by Augustine Anthony; Editing by Zeeshan Haider and Sanjeev Miglani)

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Iraq's Qaeda asks ex-fighters to return, threatens attacks (Reuters)

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Al Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate has asked Sunni militia members who turned against the insurgency and joined forces with the U.S. military and the Shi'ite-led government to return to its ranks, threatening to attack those who do not "repent."

In an hour-long audio speech, the spokesman for the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, said the group was growing stronger "despite all the difficulties and challenges" and was still training and sheltering foreign fighters, the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group said late Monday.

"As for you, satanic Awakenings, we strive to guide you more than you strive to kill us. If you come to us in repentance, we will accept your repentance even if you killed a million people," Adnani said, according to SITE.

"Do not stand in the way between us and the (Shi'ites) ... We will not get bored or tired; rather, we will continue until the Day of Judgment, and we will kill from amongst you only those who we see will never return."

The Sahwa militia, or Awakening Council, made up of former insurgents who turned against al Qaeda and helped turn the tide of the Iraq war, was formed in late 2006, mostly by Sunni sheikhs with the help of the U.S. military during the sectarian bloodshed that killed tens of thousands of people.

The integration of the former Sahwa fighters into the government is considered a key to stabilizing Iraq, eight years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein and before a full withdrawal of U.S. troops by the end of this year.

The Sahwa are increasingly concerned that the new Shi'ite-led government is not carrying out a promise to hire them. Two years ago the Pentagon criticized the slow pace of integration, saying that a failure to hire the Sahwa fighters could jeopardize security gains.

Jobless Sahwa could return to a weakened but still lethal insurgency that carries out dozens of attacks each month.

While overall violence has plunged since the 2006-07 bloodshed, bombings and other attacks occur every day, and occasional major attacks kill dozens of people. Sahwa militia members are frequent targets.

Adnani said the ISC was still carrying out hit and run attacks despite rumors the insurgency had been weakened by the arrests and killings of its leaders, and ordered Iraqi officials not to execute jailed Muslims.

"Know that if you execute Muslim women and men in general and the mujahideen (fighters) in particular, you will face dire consequences," he said. "Everyone knows that when we say, we deliver."

(Reporting by Rania El Gamal, editing by Tim Pearce)

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Somali refugees pack capital after rebels quit (Reuters)

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Thousands of Somali refugees, fleeing famine and years of violence, streamed into Mogadishu on Monday searching for food after Islamist rebels withdrew from the capital.

The al Qaeda-affiliated al Shabaab insurgents began pulling their fighters out of Mogadishu over the weekend, raising hopes that humanitarian groups would be able to step up aid deliveries after years of blockages by the militant group.

Locals told Reuters long lines of refugees were now heading to the battle-scarred city to escape the region's worst drought in decades, and existing supplies were already running low.

The United Nations says about 3.6 million people are at risk of starvation in Somalia and about 12 million people across the Horn of Africa region, including in Ethiopia and Kenya.

"Now thousands ... are on the way from Bakool and Bay (regions) to Mogadishu," Sherif Isak, 58, a refugee in Badbaado camp on the outskirts of the capital, told Reuters.

"I cannot say it will rain but I am sure life will improve if al Shabaab melts away. More agencies will come and people will get food and jobs," he said.

Al Shabaab withdrew four years into their battle to overthrow Somalia's Western-backed government, an insurgency that has driven the chaotic country deeper into anarchy.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre 20 years ago, and peace is a distinct prospect.

The militants, hostile to any Western intervention, have blocked humanitarian deliveries in the past, saying aid creates dependency. Aid agencies say they have been unable to reach more than 2 million Somalis facing starvation in rebel-held territories.

Days after al Shabaab's departure, the first of three flights from the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR landed in Mogadishu Monday, carrying more than 31 tons of shelter material, including blankets and jerricans for water.

Local officials said they were cautiously hopeful.

"If ongoing aid flights keep coming to Mogadishu, we are optimistic that people will survive," Fartun Abdisalan Adam, a local rights group official told Reuters in Mogadishu.

But existing supplies were running low. "The refugees are still storming the capital in search of food and there is not enough food for them to survive in the capital," she added.

Somalia's struggling government hailed the rebels' exit as a major victory but al Shabaab said their withdrawal was just tactical and promised to return, and analysts said the exit could herald a wave of al Qaeda-style suicide attacks.

CAR BLAST

Monday afternoon, a suicide car bomb detonated prematurely 13 km (8 miles) south of Mogadishu, officials said.

"We understand a car full of explosives detonated unexpectedly. Only the driver died, but two civilians were also injured," said Captain Ndayiragije Come, a spokesman for the African Union (AU) peace keeping force, AMISOM.

"The suicide car bomb was heading to Mogadishu. Al Shabaab has not given up war. They are masterminding more blasts but we are very alert."

Mogadishu residents said they still felt far from secure. Many feared fresh fighting between government troops and remnants of the rebel force hiding out in the capital.

Militants have threatened to behead anyone who betrayed their fighters to the police.

"I think this is one of the riskiest operating environments of any humanitarian operation in the world right now so I think sure, there's risk of an uptick in the fighting, there are all sorts of risks," a senior U.S. official traveling with the delegation of Jill Biden, the wife of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden was visiting Dadaab, the world's largest refugee camp just over Somalia's border in neighboring Kenya. Dadaab, declared full in 2008, has seen an influx of about 1,500 Somali refugees a day since late July.

"There's such a great influx every single day ... coming in here that I think it's just getting overwhelming for them to handle it all. We need to stay ahead of it," Biden told reporters.

(Additional reporting and writing by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by James Macharia)

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Norway police face review, think killer acted alone (Reuters)

OSLO (Reuters) – Police are increasingly certain that mass killer Anders Behring Breivik acted alone, but are leaving no stone unturned in the hunt for collaborators as they try to close one of the bloodiest chapters in Norway's history.

Breivik, 32, killed eight people in a bomb attack in central Oslo last Friday and then shot 68 at an island summer camp for the ruling Labor Party's youth wing.

He has told police he was part of a network in his self-styled "crusade" against Islam and multiculturalism -- but Norwegian authorities doubt this.

"So far we have no indication that he has any accomplices or that there are more cells," the head of the Norwegian Police Security Service, Janne Kristiansen, told Reuters on Wednesday. His claim was likely to have been a play for publicity, she said.

Kristiansen said there would be no let-up in hunting Breivik's possible partners, however unlikely, or in police monitoring of extremists.

"As long as there is a tiny chance...we have to investigate it -- that is our main focus," said Kristiansen, who added that Breivik was "too calculated, too focused" to be considered insane.

Norway's parliament has promised a review of the country's security services and their actions during Breivik's attacks. The government said on Wednesday it would pay the costs of burying the mostly teenaged and twenty-something victims.

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg urged his countrymen to participate in the open debate and democracy that Breivik had cruelly silenced at the camp.

Days after the attacks, Norwegians may be doing just that, with the Labor Party reporting a surge in applications. An opinion poll showed 80 percent believed the prime minister had performed "extremely well" in the crisis.

Staring at thousands of flowers outside Oslo cathedral in the sunshine, physiotherapist Aase Bergheim, 41, said she now saw Stoltenberg, and Norway, differently.

"The prime minister, I now see him in a new light, because he's shown he can gather the people. People are smiling at each other now. I don't usually vote for him, but maybe in future," she said.

(Writing and additional reporting by Mohammed Abbas; Editing by Louise Ireland and Mark Trevelyan)

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Violence in north Kosovo draws EU warning (Reuters)

PRISTINA/BELGRADE (Reuters) – A deadly flare-up of violence in Kosovo's Serbian-populated north has sent tensions with Belgrade soaring and prompted a stern intervention from the European Union.

Kosovo, which has a 90 percent ethnic Albanian majority, sent special police units on Monday to take control of northern border crossings and enforce a ban on imports from Serbia -- retaliation for its block on Kosovo's exports.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 but Belgrade does not recognize the move and the 60,000 Serbs who live in northern Kosovo still consider Belgrade their capital.

One Kosovo police officer was shot in the head and died on Tuesday in a clash with local Serbs. On Wednesday, armed Serbs attacked and burned down the Jarinje border post and fired at members of NATO's KFOR peacekeeping force.

"It was confirmed that an act of arson was committed against that position... There have also been confirmed reports of shots fired at KFOR personnel in the vicinity," KFOR said in a statement.

It did not say whether anyone was injured in the attack or whether KFOR troops had returned fire, but said reinforcements had been sent to the border.

Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci accused Belgrade of masterminding the violence. "We will not withdraw, there will be no return under any circumstances and at any price," he said.

He said Serbia was trying to carve out a piece of northern Kosovo, but this "will never happen."

Serbia's pro-European President Boris Tadic urged Kosovo Serbs to refrain from violence. "The hooligans who are sparking violence are not defending either the people or the Serb state," his office said in a statement.

"RESTORE CALM IMMEDIATELY"

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she spoke on Tuesday with Thaci and Tadic, urging them to restore calm immediately with a warning that violence would not be tolerated.

"I strongly condemn the violence that has taken place in northern Kosovo. These latest developments are unacceptable," she said in a statement.

"It is the responsibility of both Belgrade and Pristina to immediately defuse the tensions, and restore calm and security for everyone."

Belgrade wants to join the EU, but it must mend its ties with Kosovo to speed up its bid to join the bloc. Pristina and Belgrade have started EU-moderated talks aimed at improving trade, movement of people and issues like energy supplies, but negotiations have moved slowly.

Kosovo's police raids on Monday and Tuesday drew criticism from both the United States as the EU, which said the government should have consulted its Western backers.

A Serb eyewitness said on Wednesday that a group of masked men armed with wooden planks, axes and crowbars attacked and burned the Jarinje border post, which consisted of two-storey prefabricated buildings and a roofed passageway for cars.

"Later a bulldozer was brought to demolish the burned buildings," he said.

A cameraman and a sound engineer of Serbia's state-run Tanjug news agency were attacked by Serb hardline nationalists near Jarinje and seriously injured, the agency said.

In a separate incident earlier on Wednesday, an unidentified gunman fired shots at a NATO helicopter, a NATO spokesman said, but there were no injuries.

The U.N. Security Council accepted a Serbian request for an urgent meeting on tensions in Kosovo after Serbia sent a letter to the 15-nation council requesting an open meeting.

The call was supported by Serbia's ally Russia, which like Belgrade has refused to recognize Kosovo's February 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia.

The council opted for a compromise and scheduled closed-door consultations on Kosovo on Thursday, rather than a public meeting, the diplomats told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Serbia lost its former province of Kosovo in 1999, when NATO waged a bombing campaign to stop Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic from killing ethnic Albanians and carrying out ethnic cleansing in a counter-insurgency war.

(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau in New York and John O'Donnell in Brussels; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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U.N. flies food into famine-hit Somali capital (Reuters)

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – The United Nations airlifted emergency food for starving children into the Somali capital Mogadishu on Wednesday as aid groups warned of a growing influx of hungry families from the famine-hit south of the country.

Some 3.7 million Somalis -- almost half of the population -- are going hungry with drought hitting some 11.6 million people across what local media have dubbed a "triangle of death" straddling Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.

Though the U.N. food agency had already distributed food in the capital, this is its first airlift of food into Somalia since the food crisis began.

"We need to scale up our programs, and especially the nutrition programs, in order to avoid children falling into severe malnutrition," Stephanie Savariaud, a U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) spokeswoman, told Reuters.

"Then they need to get hospitalized and it's much more difficult to save them."

The U.N. plane carried 10 tonnes of so-called therapeutic food -- the type used to feed malnourished children under five. The shipment will feed 3,500 children for a month, WFP said.

The agency said it has an additional 70 tonnes ready in Kenya, which it will fly to Somalia over the coming days.

Aid agencies say they cannot reach more than two million Somalis facing starvation in the parts of the country where Islamist militants control much of the worst-hit areas.

WFP officials have said they will try to deliver food to the areas controlled by the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab rebels over the next week and that they will consider food drops from aircrafts as a last resort.

There are about 400,000 displaced people in the capital Mogadishu, with about 1,000 new arrivals each day, the U.N.'s refugee agency (UNHCR) said in a statement on Tuesday. It estimated that 100,000 internally displaced people have arrived in the city over the last two months.

People in makeshift settlements are fighting over food being distributed by local charities, with the weaker ones unable to push through the crowds to get it, UNHCR said.

"Even if people are able to obtain the food and water being distributed, they often lack even the most basic containers to carry it. Often, they must haul food and water in plastic bags," UNHCR said.

The WFP has set up 16 feeding centers across the capital, providing hot meals to new arrivals using supplies delivered by sea from Kenya and Tanzania.

Boats are continuing to shift food in but they can take months to arrive. They are escorted by the European Naval Force to Somalia to deter pirate attacks.

(Additional reporting and writing by Katy Migiro in Nairobi; Editing by Barry Malone and Elizabeth Fullerton)

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China train crash due to signal gear design flaw: Xinhua (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) – A deadly train crash in eastern China on the weekend was caused by a "severe flaw" in the design of signaling equipment, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday, citing the Shanghai Railway Bureau.

A high-speed train rammed into another stalled train near the city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang province late on Saturday, the report said, because a signal should have turned red after a lighting strike, but it was mistakenly still green, Xinhua said.

Xinhua cited Shanghai Railway Bureau head An Lusheng as saying that railway staff at the Wenzhou station did not respond correctly after the signaling system failed.

The signal equipment was designed by a research and design institute in Beijing, Xinhua said, but it did not disclose the full name of the institute. The equipment had been in operation since September 2009.

Premier Wen Jiabao has ordered an investigation into the crash and pledged the government would take "resolute" safety steps in its aftermath.

The crash killed 39 people, China's worst train accident since 2008.

Wen arrived in Wenzhou on Thursday morning to mourn the victims, express condolences to the relatives of the victims, and visit the scene of the accident.

Public anger has boiled up over the crash in online postings and in at least one organized protest.

On Wednesday, more than 100 relatives of passengers who were killed protested outside a railway station, angered by the lack of accountability over the incident, state media reported.

The Global Times, a tabloid owned by Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily, said the protesters demanded direct talks with officials from the Railways Ministry.

"They claimed that the bullet trains were built with advanced technology. How could lightning paralyze them so easily?" the newspaper quoted Wang Hui, whose husband died in the accident, as saying.

"Help us and tell us what really happened," the paper quoted the protesters, who gathered outside the station near the accident site in Wenzhou in Zheijiang province, as saying.

The newspaper showed photographs on its website of dozens of people with some holding a banner that said: "Disclose the true reason behind the July 23 train crash and respect the dignity of victims."

Efforts by the propaganda department to bar Chinese media from questioning official accounts of the accident fueled the anger and suspicion, especially about the death toll and rescue efforts.

The Railway Ministry is still investigating the cause of the accident, and has ordered a two-month safety review of railway operations.

State media has said the lightning strike knocked out power which in turn knocked out an electronic safety system designed to alert conductors about stalled locomotives on the line.

(Reported by Sui-Lee Wee, Jim Bai, Ken Wills and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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New pressure on Gaddafi on foreign, rebel fronts (Reuters)

NALUT, Libya (Reuters) – Rebels fighting in Libya's western mountains prepared on Thursday for a new offensive against Muammar Gaddafi's troops, raising pressure on the Libyan leader a day after Britain granted diplomatic recognition to the opposition.

With hopes fading of a negotiated settlement, both sides appear prepared for the five-month-old war to grind on into the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in August.

The rebels said they were planning to attack the town of Ghezaia near the Tunisian border in the next 48 hours, and a Reuters correspondent saw dozens of heavily armed pickup trucks heading for the nearby rebel-held town of Nalut.

"We are reinforcing the position around Nalut and we will attack Ghezaia tomorrow or the next day for sure. We plan to take it," Omar Fakkan, a rebel commander, told Reuters.

He said that forces from a number of rebel-held towns in the Nafusa Mountains were gathering in Nalut, ready for the attack.

Rebel fighters have taken large swathes of Libya since the start of an uprising to end Gaddafi's 41-year rule, and now control much of the Nafusa mountain range, the northeast of Libya and the western city of Misrata.

Yet they remain poorly armed and are often disorganized. Despite four months of NATO strikes, they have failed to reach the capital Tripoli and appear unlikely to make a breakthrough soon.

Gaddafi has scoffed at the efforts to end his rule and has weathered the now-stalled rebel advance and the NATO air raids on his forces and military infrastructure.

A recent flurry of diplomatic activity has yielded little, with the rebels insisting Gaddafi step down as a first step and his government saying his role is non-negotiable.

United Nations envoy Abdel Elah al-Khatib visited both sides this week with plans for a ceasefire and a power-sharing government that excludes Gaddafi, but to no avail.

Asked about Khatib's proposal, rebel leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said: "We were surprised the day before yesterday that we are taking 10 steps back... and he says to share power with Muammar Gaddafi's regime. This is laughable."

Gaddafi also appeared defiant on Wednesday, urging rebels to lay down their arms or suffer an ugly death.

"We all lead this battle, until victory, until martyrdom," he said in an audio message aired at a pro-Gaddafi rally in Zaltan, 140 km (90 miles) west of his stronghold Tripoli.

RECOGNISING THE REBELS

Ramping up pressure on Gaddafi, Britain expelled his diplomats from London on Wednesday and invited the rebel National Transitional Council to replace them.

Foreign Secretary William Hague announced that Britain now recognized the rebels as Libya's legitimate government and unblocked 91 million pounds ($148.7 million) in frozen assets.

The United States and about 30 other nations have also recognized the opposition, potentially freeing up billions of dollars in frozen funds.

"This decision reflects the National Transitional Council's increasing legitimacy, competence and success in reaching out to Libyans across the country," Hague said in London.

Gaddafi's government said the British move was "illegal and irresponsible" and a "stain on the forehead of Britain."

"We will go to the International Court of Justice and the national courts in Britain, and we will use their justice," said Libya's deputy foreign minister, Khaled Kaim.

However, the British move won praise from rebels fighting in the western mountains.

"We are encouraged by what Britain has done and there is no way Gaddafi can stay in Libya," said Fakkan.

"The fighting will get much worse now because he will have to fight to survive and the Libyans do not want him."

(Additional reporting by Joseph Nasr in Berlin, Rania El Gamal in Benghazi, Hamid Oul Ahmed in Algiers, Missy Ryan and Lutfi Abu Aun in Tripoli, Mussab Al Khairallah in Misrata; Writing by Lin Noueihed; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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With Layton sick, NDP says will fight on (Reuters)

OTTAWA (Reuters) – The main opposition party in Canada, stunned by its leader's serious illness, elected an interim chief on Wednesday and dismissed speculation that the party could start to break up.

New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton, who took the left-leaning party to its best ever performance in the May 2 election, announced on Monday he was stepping down temporarily to deal with a second bout of cancer.

Layton, who looked gravely ill, vowed to return for the resumption of Parliament on Sept 19. The party relies heavily on his charisma and experience and some political observers predict the NDP could struggle without him.

"These are terrible circumstances, no doubt about that," NDP president Brian Topp told reporters. "(We) don't celebrate what is happening here. But I think we've got the bench strength in this team to step forward and handle it."

NDP members of Parliament met in Ottawa on Wednesday and, after consulting with Layton by phone, nominated political newcomer Nycole Turmel to be interim leader. The party's leadership will officially confirm the choice on Thursday.

Turmel, in her late 60s, would not be a candidate if Layton failed to return and the party had to run a leadership race.

"She'll do a great job. More importantly we know she's just keeping the spot warm for Jack," Member of Parliament David Christopherson told reporters.

Despite such optimism, the party is already making clear that Layton could be off work longer than planned.

"If Jack Layton needs more time to recover, no one in the party will tell him he can't take that time," Topp said.

Party legislators, who said Layton looked to have successfully beaten off the prostate cancer that was diagnosed last year, acknowledged they were shocked by his new illness but said they remained upbeat.

A wave of so-called "Laytonmania" helped the NDP elect enough members of Parliament on May 2 to become the main opposition party for the first time.

"Jack himself has been so pivotal in building this team ... but we've learned from our leader and I think we will rise to the challenge of what we have to do," said Libby Davies, one of the party's two deputy leaders.

The other deputy leader is Thomas Mulcair, who is the favorite to eventually replace Layton.

The governing Conservatives -- who favor low taxes and a tough-on-crime approach -- won a majority of seats the House of Commons in the May 2 election and will not face reelection until October 2015.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Peter Galloway)

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