20110415
reuters

PARIS (Reuters) - France is pushing for NATO approval to extend military strikes on Muammar Gaddafi's army to strategic logistical targets, to try to break a deadlock in Libya's civil war as the civilian death toll mounts.

The push comes as France and Britain, which are leading the campaign in Libya, struggle to get coalition partners to step up participation or contribute more hardware, despite pleas from rebels that civilians are dying in the besieged city of Misrata.

The United States and European NATO allies rebuffed French and British calls on Thursday to contribute more actively to ground strikes in Libya, and military sources say neither Paris nor London plan to deploy any extra aircraft.

France used military helicopters to fire on armoured vehicles in its recent intervention in Ivory Coast, which sped up the ouster of former president Laurent Gbagbo.

But it has made no move to deploy them in Libya, where they would make easy targets for Gaddafi's army.

France's two amphibious assault helicopter carriers are currently on base in the port of Toulon and in the Indian Ocean, the Navy says.

While the focus will remain on air strikes from fighter jets, French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet said on Friday their target should move from Gaddafi's military bases to logistics and decision centres.

Longuet told LCI television strikes should now focus on "military decision centres in Libya or on logistics depots which today are being spared". A French military source said the next step was to try and get an agreement on this.