Western-Arab talks to focus on Libya after Gaddafi

The so-called Contact Group is also expected to firm up its pledge to set up a fund to help the Libyan rebels.

The meeting comes as Nato intensified its air strikes on government targets in Tripoli.

Meanwhile, 14 rebels were reportedly killed in the city of Misrata as they tried to push back government troops.

Health officials and a rebel spokesman said more than 20 others were wounded when government forces responded with heavy artillery fire.

In a separate development, the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) said there was evidence that Col Gaddafi had ordered the rape of hundreds of women as a weapon against rebel forces.

And in Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council is due to debate a report on alleged human rights violations allegedly committed by both government troops and the rebels.

'End-game'

Top government officials from the Contact Group - which includes Britain, France and the US, as well as Arab allies Jordan Kuwait and Qatar - will be meeting in Abu Dhabi later on Thursday.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has already arrived in the UAE.

Ahead of the talks, a senior US official was quoted by Reuters as saying that "the international community is beginning to talk about what could constitute end-game" to the Libyan conflict.

"That would obviously include some kind of ceasefire arrangement and some kind of political process... and of course the question of Gaddafi and perhaps his family is also a key part of that," added the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity; Kazinform cites BBC News.

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