20110224
Reuters
LONDON (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary William Hague urged the world on Thursday to raise pressure on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and said Britain wanted an international investigation into the use of violence against protesters.

Italy's foreign minister has said as many as 1,000 people may have been killed in Libya, where Gaddafi has launched a bloody crackdown on a spreading revolt against his 41-year rule.

Hague, who said on Monday he had seen information suggesting, wrongly, that Gaddafi was on his way to Venezuela, said "the odds are stacking heavily against him".

"I think it will be important for all of us internationally over the coming days to increase the pressure on a regime which by all accounts is now committing serious offences," he told BBC Radio 4.

Hague said "atrocities have taken place" and there had been "attempts to fire" on people.

"We will be looking for ways to hold to account the people who are responsible for these things and they should bear that in mind before they order any more of them," Hague said.

"We will want some kind of international investigation ... We are finding a lot of support from other countries," he said.

His comments were similar to those of U.S. President Barack Obama who on Wednesday condemned the "unacceptable" bloodshed in Libya and said he would work with other countries to hold Gaddafi's government accountable.

A high-level British government crisis committee, known as Cobra, was meeting on Thursday to discuss the government's response to the Libya crisis, the Foreign Office said.

The government is wrestling with the problem of how to extract about 170 British oil workers scattered around remote desert camps in Libya, some of whom have appealed for help after looters took their vehicles and supplies.

Sky News quoted sources as saying the Special Boat Service, a crack special forces unit, is on standby for a possible rescue mission to Libya, but the government declined comment.

Evacuees from Libya were returning to Britain on Thursday after a day of delays and confusion on Wednesday led to strong criticism of the British government, prompting Hague to order a review of evacuation procedures.

A flight organised by oil major BP in conjunction with the Foreign Office arrived back at London's Gatwick airport on Thursday, a second charter had flown from Tripoli to Malta, and a British military plane had also been sent to Libya, officials said.

One evacuee, Stephen Willoughby, told Sky News his experience had been "horrific".

"You didn't fear for your safety but it was just constant. It was 72 hours of just gunfire, gunfire, gunfire. You couldn't go out, machetes on the streets, gunmen on the streets," he said.