Key Libyan rebel official Mahmud Jibril was to hold his first White House talks Friday, but his appeals for diplomatic recognition and cash looked unlikely to yield an immediate US response.
Jibril, one of the main interlocutors for rebels battling Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, was due to meet National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, but officials said there were no plans for him to see President Barack Obama.
The talks came on a day when NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen was at the White House for closed-door discussions with Obama, as the alliance keeps up the pace of assaults on Kadhafi's forces in Libya.
Jibril set the stage for his White House appearance by warning that the opposition-led National Transitional Council (NTC) was running badly short of money and needed diplomatic recognition as Libya's rightful rulers.
"We ask the United States to join France, Gambia, Italy and Qatar in recognizing the council as the sole legitimate representative of the Libyan people until free elections can be held," he wrote in the New York Times.
"This signal would further isolate the Kadhafi regime in Tripoli, heighten opposition morale and improve access to diplomatic and humanitarian assistance."
But White House spokesman Jay Carney made clear that recognition, at least for now, would not be forthcoming from the
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