Senator McCain: Arm Libyan rebels, like Afghanistan in 1980s

PARIS — The revolt against Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi could stall unless the United States arms the rebels battling his regime, influential US Senator John McCain warned Wednesday.

"There is a possibility if not a probability of a stalemate, and that should be of deep concern to us," the former presidential candidate and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee told AFP.

"The United States needs to recognise the TNC as France and Italy have done. They need to get supplies and equipment into the liberation forces and we need to get American air power back into the fight," he said.

The TNC is Libya's "Transitional National Council", the political arm of the rebellion, which has been recognised by Paris and Rome but not yet by Washington as legitimately representating the Libyan people.

"I'm glad that the Predator is now there, it's a very effective weapon, but I think there's more that need to be done," he added, referring to the armed drone deployed last week by US forces to strike regime targets.

McCain said he remains opposed to sending US ground troops to Libya, but confirmed that he supported sending weapons to the rebels.

"I think we could do the same thing that we did in the Afghan struggle against the Russians. There are ways to get weapons in without direct US supplying," he said, referring to US covert action in the 1980s.