IN A sign of increasing strains within Nato, Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini said the organisation risked losing credibility in the wake of civilian deaths caused by its military intervention in Libya.
In an obvious reference to Nato's admission on Sunday that it had, by mistake, destroyed an inhabited house in Tripoli, allegedly killing nine civilians, Mr Frattini said yesterday: "Nato's credibility is on the line here . . . we simply cannot run the risk of killing civilians."
However, Mr Frattini, who was speaking in Luxembourg before attending an EU foreign ministers' meeting, ruled out any unilateral Italian withdrawal either from Nato's operation in Libya or from any other international mission.
"International missions," he said, "are obviously useful but they have to be handled in a spirit of international collaboration - there can be neither unilateral withdrawals nor an open-ended timetable that merely guarantees the status quo . . . As far as Libya is concerned there is a very clear September deadline but I think that, apart from the bombings, a [ political] solution has to be found much sooner than September."
Mr Frattini's comments appeared to be a riposte to Northern League leader Umberto Bossi who, at the league's annual gathering on Sunday, suggested the government cut taxes by reducing its participation in "very expensive" foreign military missions.
Italy, which was initially hesitant about taking part because of its former colonial links with Libya, is one of eight Nato states involved in the air strikes.
In an apparent reference to the fact that Libyan officials had taken international reporters to the bombed Tripoli house on Sunday, where they saw several bodies being pulled out of a destroyed building, Mr Frattini said Nato risked losing the propaganda war to Libyan leader Col Muammar Gadafy.
He expressed concern that western media reports did not emphasise enough the good work done by the alliance.
"We cannot continue our shortcomings in the way we communicate with the public, which doesn't keep up with the daily propaganda of Gadafy," he said. "The international media should do more to highlight the atrocities being carried out by Gadafy, such as mass rape."
Even as Mr Frattini spoke, Libyan state authorities were claiming that a further 15 civilians, including three children, had been killed in raids on the town of Sorman, 70km west of Tripoli.
Libya's Transitional National Council, tribal elders and representatives of NGOs are expected in Rome this week for a conference partly intended to mark out the road map for a post-Gadafy Libya.