One hundred days of NATO air strikes against Moamer Kadhafi's regime have helped give opposition rebels a tentative upper hand in the Libya conflict, a top UN official said Monday.
"While we do not have a detailed understanding of the military situation, it is clear that the initiative, although halting, is now with the opposition forces supported at times with NATO air power," B. Lynne Pascoe, UN under secretary general for political affairs, told the UN Security Council.
It was the clearest indication given yet by a UN official of the impact of the NATO raids which started on March 19.
But amid African criticism of the NATO campaign, Pascoe said the United Nations was "concerned" about casualties caused by the regime or the NATO air strikes.
Pasco stressed however that the Kadhafi regime "has been responsible for the vast majority of civilian casualties."
NATO leaders have strongly denied accusations by some members of the 15-nation Security Council that the raids have specifically targeted Kadhafi to achieve regime change.
Britain, France and the United States have insisted that the attacks have been strictly within Security Council resolutions 1970 and 1973 which ordered action to protect civilians.
Pascoe said that in the five months to June 23, about 1.1 million people have crossed Libya's borders into Tunisia, Egypt, Niger, Algeria, Chad and Sudan. But he added that some migrant workers were returning to towns taken by the opposition.
NATO's air campaign has divided the international community however. Critics such as South Africa, Russia and China have pointed to the deaths of members of Kadhafi's family in the raids to back allegations that the alliance seeks simply regime change.
An apparent 100th day NATO air strike destroyed a luxury bus parked inside Kadhafi's Tripoli residence, an AFP correspondent reported on Monday.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last week reported the first signs that Kadhafi's regime was ready for serious negotiations.
"While cautioning that an agreement remains a long way from being concluded, the secretary general said the beginnings of a negotiation process are now under way under the auspices of his special envoy to Libya" Abdul-Ilah Al-Khatib, said UN spokesman Martin Nesirky.
The former Jordanian foreign minister is seeking to narrow differences between the regime and opposition rebels who have demanded that Kadhafi give up power before any ceasefire can start.
Western nations have also insisted that Kadhafi cannot remain as leader.
Pascoe said the Tripoli regime has signaled its "readiness to engage in a process" to carry out Security Council resolutions which demanded a ceasefire.
Khatib is currently in South Africa holding talks with President Jacob Zuma, an outspoken critic of the NATO strikes who has been pressing an African Union mediation effort.
South Africa renewed African Union calls for a "pause" in the NATO bombings, at the Security Council meeting on Libya.
"Despite this military action there has not been a solution to the Libyan crisis and the situation has in fact deteriorated with more loss of civilian lives," said South African UN charge d'affaires Doctor Mashabane.
