US wants Gaddafi to leave power: Clinton

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the US and its international partners are not going to be responsive or impressed by words of Gaddafi Government in Libya and wants him to stop attacking his own people.

"We've seen press reports of a cease-fire by the Libyan government. This is a fluid and dynamic situation.

We are going to be not responsive or impressed by words," Clinton told reporters at a joint press availability with the visiting Irish Deputy Prime Minister.

"We would have to see actions on the ground, and that is not yet at all clear. We will continue to work with our partners in the international community to press Gadhafi to leave, and to support the legitimate aspirations of the Libyan people," Clinton said.

Caving in to international pressure, Libya today announced an immediate ceasefire in the month-long battle against rebels fighting to overthrow Gaddafi, hours after UN authorised military action to curb him and imposing a no-fly zone over the strife-torn country.

Clinton said the diplomatic effort that was required to answer questions and create a level of cooperation, as represented by the resolution, was very intense in the last weeks.

The overwhelming vote by the Security Council reflects a broad understanding that stop the violence, and believes that a final result of any negotiations would have to be the decision by Colonel Gadhafi to leave.

"I want to take this one step at a time. We don't know what the final outcome will be. The first and overwhelmingly urgent action is to end the violence.

And we have to see a very clear set of decisions that are operationalzed on the ground by Gadhafi's forces to move physically a significant distance away from the east, where they have been pursuing their campaign against the opposition," she said.

Clinton said there will have to be an accounting of what has already occurred. "There are many stories of massacres, abductions. Until we can have a better idea of what actually happened, it's hard to know what the next steps will be," she said.

US Secretary-General appointed a special representative, a former Jordanian foreign minister.

"We will obviously want to have the international community involved in any kind of dialogue with the opposition and with the Gaddafi regime," she said.

Noting that the United States is very pleased with Thursday's UN Security Council vote on Libya, she said this sends a strong message that needs to be heeded.

"The efforts by the international community to come together, to make clear to Gaddafi that he cannot continue his violence against his own people.

He cannot continue to attack those who started out by peacefully demonstrating for changes that are within the right of any human being to do so, and the fact that he now has received not just the message of those of us who have been calling for him to end and the fact the he has lost his legitimacy but the Arab League and the statement that they called for with respect to the resolution," Clinton said.