World leaders must take urgent steps to release frozen Libyan assets to give the rebels' transitional administration funds to pay state salaries and fund vital services as Moammar Gadhafi's regime teetered near collapse, a senior Qatari official said before hosting talks with Western and Arab envoys, AP reported. Khaled al-Attiyah, the Gulf nation's minister of state for international cooperation, said at least $2.5 billion should be unblocked by early September to pay civil servants and begin the huge task of rebuilding. "It is incumbent upon us to ensure that the National Transitional Council is given every material and moral support to carry out its mission," said al-Attiyah before meeting with envoys from the United States, European nations and Turkey, which is hosting a major international conference on Libya on Thursday. In London, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the U.N. Security Council will vote this week on a resolution releasing billions of dollars in frozen Libyan assets. -- SPA
