NATO

US and Italian defense chiefs on Monday said they examined prospects for ending the allied air campaign over Libya and how to support the country's post-Kadhafi transition in talks at the Pentagon.

America's military alliance with Europe - the cornerstone of U.S. security policy for six decades - faces a "dim, if not dismal" future, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday in a blunt valedictory address.

NATO officials and Western leaders defended the increasingly aggressive airstrikes in Libya on Sunday after the Libyan government said one barrage had killed four members of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s family, raising criticism that the attacks exceeded the Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force.

Nato is running short of attack aircraft for its bombing campaign against Muammar Gaddafi only days after taking command of the Libyan mission from a coalition led by the US, France and Britain.

NATO has launched around-the-clock surveillance flights of Libya as it considers various options for dealing with escalating violence in the war-torn country, America's ambassador to the organization told reporters Monday.