The United States is pursuing different means to envision the end of the Gaddafi regime, the White House has said even as it ruled out the use of military force to do so.

“There is the administration policy that Muammar Gaddafi is no longer fit to lead and should leave power. We are obviously pursuing a number of different means, non-lethal means, non-military means, to help bring that about, to pressure Gaddafi, to isolate him, and to create an environment where the Libyan people hopefully will be able to create their own future with the leaders that they deserve and that they pick. And that’s the endgame that we envision,” the White House Press Secretary, Mr Jay Carney, said.

Mr Carney argued that the US President has been very clear about what America’s mission has been, and what it has accomplished in such a short period of time, the number of lives that have been saved, the remarkable effort to build a coalition and take action in just 31 days, and now make that transition from a US-led military mission to a NATO-led mission with the US in a support and assist role.

“We understand that there are two parts to this.

There’s the military mission that was designed as requested by the Libyan Opposition, as supported by the Arab League and supported by UN Security Council Resolution 1973, which is designed to protect Libyan civilians,” he said, adding that the other is the Administration’s policy to ensure that Mr Gaddafi is out of power.

“The military mission is quite clearly to protect the Libyan people from the brutal assault that Gaddafi’s forces have been perpetrating on them. So it is everyone except those forces who were carrying out the attacks,” he said.

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