.- The European Union sent a fact-finding mission to Tripoli on Sunday to report on the humanitarian and evacuation to a summit to try to block the crisis in Libya this week, the EU said in a statement. The team, headed by the Director of EU crisis Agostino Miozzo, traveled to the Libyan capital from Rome on a plane provided by the Italian Government.
"Their goal is to analyze the humanitarian and evacuation efforts in Libya to have an assessment of what might be needed in terms of additional support," said the statement. The bloc said it was the first international mission to the country since fighting broke out in Libya. The head of EU foreign policy, Catherine Ashton, convened a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the bloc's response to the crisis in Libya, after a summit of European leaders to be held on Friday by the same reason.
"I decided to send this high-level mission to have real and direct information to add to previous discussions of the special meeting on Friday when put on top of the situation to the Heads of State and Government," Ashton said in a statement. A European diplomat stressed that the objective of the mission was to gather information, not to negotiate with the Libyan authorities.
"We have people at the border, but nobody in Libyan territory to find out what is happening," said the diplomat. "We're not there to negotiate but to listen and know what is happening on the ground," he added. An intense machine gun fire erupted on Sunday in Tripoli, the first episode of this nature in the main stronghold of the leader Muammar Gaddafi in a two-week revolt against their Government, 41.
Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim denied any clash in the capital, saying the shooting was a celebration of the reconquest of the Army in several cities in the hands of rebel forces. 
"Their goal is to analyze the humanitarian and evacuation efforts in Libya to have an assessment of what might be needed in terms of additional support," said the statement. The bloc said it was the first international mission to the country since fighting broke out in Libya. The head of EU foreign policy, Catherine Ashton, convened a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the bloc's response to the crisis in Libya, after a summit of European leaders to be held on Friday by the same reason.
"I decided to send this high-level mission to have real and direct information to add to previous discussions of the special meeting on Friday when put on top of the situation to the Heads of State and Government," Ashton said in a statement. A European diplomat stressed that the objective of the mission was to gather information, not to negotiate with the Libyan authorities.
"We have people at the border, but nobody in Libyan territory to find out what is happening," said the diplomat. "We're not there to negotiate but to listen and know what is happening on the ground," he added. An intense machine gun fire erupted on Sunday in Tripoli, the first episode of this nature in the main stronghold of the leader Muammar Gaddafi in a two-week revolt against their Government, 41.
Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim denied any clash in the capital, saying the shooting was a celebration of the reconquest of the Army in several cities in the hands of rebel forces.
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