The Hague: The Dutch government said on Thursday it
was ready to unlock two billion dollars in frozen Libyan
assets to help the new interim government in Tripoli put its
economy afloat.
"We want to unlock two billion dollars which were
frozen," Henk Brons, a spokesman for Prime Minister Mark
Rutte, told a news agency.
"It's money that the NTC (rebel National Transitional
Council) can use to put the Libyan economy back on its feet."
Brons said the money would be released from a total
amount of around 4.4 billion dollars in assets which had been
frozen by the Dutch government in line with EU sanctions
against fugitive Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Rutte was taking part in an international conference held
in Paris to muster support for the NTC administration set up
by the rebels who ousted Gaddafi after a six-months
Western-backed struggle.
Similar amounts have been unfrozen by the United States,
France and Britain but other countries holding assets from the
oil-rich country's ousted regime have so far been reluctant to
unlock them.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, September 01, 2011, 23:22