Italian government ready to allocate a 350-million-euro fund

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini met on Friday with Libya rebels' Transitional National Council (TNC) deputy prime minister Ali al-Isawi on the Libyan crisis developments and aid package that Italy was ready to offer, the xinhuanet.com reported.

Frattini, talking at a joint press conference, announced that the Italian government was ready to allocate a 350-million-euro (about 494 million U.S. dollars) fund in financial aid and oil provisions to help assist the TNC and Benghazi's population, the source reports.

"It's a matter of days and these funds will be transferred to Libya for humanitarian ends. The agreement has already been signed by both parties," Frattini said, recalling that Italy had recently approved a decree which unfreezes several Libyan assets and investments in the country in favor of the TNC.

The Source reports that Ali Al-Isawi briefed on the progresses of the TNC's operations in the Libyan conflict, including an attack on Thursday night against a command center of Gaddafi's regime in Tripoli where his son Saif Al Islam was and which injured a high-level member of the government.

On Friday Al-Isawi also met in Rome with Interior Minister Roberto Maroni to further discuss means by which to boost cooperation against illegal immigration fluxes across the Mediterranean, and in assisting asylum-seekers.