Anti-government rebels dry ammunition in a base for training and recruiting rebels for the army in Benghazi February 28, 2011.
Anti-government rebels dry ammunition in a base for training and recruiting rebels for the army in Benghazi February 28, 2011. REUTERS

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday that that the United States is reaching out different Libyans as the Obama administration calls for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to leave the country.

[W]e've been reaching out to many different Libyans who are attempting to organize in the east and as the revolution moves westward there as well, Clinton said on Sunday.

Clinton is in Geneva on Monday at a United Nations meeting of the international body's Human Rights Council. Also on Monday, President Barack Obama will be meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon at the White House to discuss the situation in Libya.

Obama will be discussing humanitarian, diplomatic, legal and other actions aimed at stopping killings of civilians in Libya, the White House said. Another topic will be to ensure that U.S. agencies and UN members mobilize to provide humanitarian relief.

Clinton elaborated on those plans on Sunday, saying she would be meeting with European counterparts to discuss how to carry out what the UN Security Council agreed to on Saturday in a resolution. Permanent members of the council include China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. There are also ten non-permanent members.

I will be meeting with many of my counterparts from Europe and beyond to discuss ways that we can better coordinate and organize in meeting the expectations laid down by the Security Council, and thinking through how we can respond to the needs of the Libyan people not only in a humanitarian way but in a political and civil response as they try to sort through how they're going to organize themselves post-Qadhafi, she said.

A resolution on Saturday specified targeted sanctions against members of the Libyan government, and an arms embargo.

It also called for humanitarian relief, 'which is going to be essential, Clinton said, targeting people fleeing into Tunesia and Egypt, which she says are facing urge humanitarian demands, plus internally displaced people.