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EU to unfreeze Libyan assets for reconstruction

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The European Union (EU) will release previously frozen Libyan assets for the country's reconstruction, while rebel leaders are calling for help in preparing for elections, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Tuesday.

Addressing a press conference, Ashton said the economic design of post-conflict Libya was under discussion.

"The initial issues of the economy are first of all unfreezing the assets the country has," she said, "It's a country that has a huge amount of assets, it's a rich country."

"The question is how to get the economy moving again quickly... In a post-Gaddafi situation, we're able to unfreeze the assets to provide the resources to the country that is currently being held across the world by many different countries," Ashton said.

The EU and the United States have reportedly frozen a total of more than 60 billion U.S. dollars' assets in Libyan overseas bank accounts and investments.

Ashton said that one important precondition for releasing the Libyan assets should be "making sure that the interim government has got the right checks and balances, to ensure that the assets are dealt with in a transparent way, in a way that is ensuring the money is going where it needs to go, to the people."

"I anticipate that the release of assets back to the Libyan people is going to create a lot of resource on the ground for them," she said.

Ashton also said leaders of the Libyan rebel council had requested international help in preparing for elections in the North African country.

Libyan rebels Tuesday captured Muammar Gaddafi's Bab al-Azizya compound in Tripoli after heavy fighting and looted an armory inside the vast barracks, Al-Jazeera television reported. There is no clear information about the whereabouts of embattled Gaddafi.