Air strikes on Libya avert refugee crisis: Hungary

(CAIRO) - Western air strikes on Libya have averted a refugee crisis that could have seen hundreds of thousands of Libyans flood into Egypt, the current holder of the EU presidency said on Wednesday.

"Had there been no air strikes... most probably now the number of refugees at the Egyptian-Libyan border would not be thousands but most probably hundreds of thousands," Hungarian Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi told reporters in Cairo.

"That catastrophe was now avoided... we can safely say that at least this operation saved not only the lives of many, many people but also pre-empted the occurance of such a crisis situation with refugees."

British Air Vice Marshal Greg Bagwell said Wednesday that Libya's air force has been almost totally destroyed in international military strikes, which Britain, France and the United States launched last week.

The US military said Moamer Kadhafi's ground troops threatening rebel-held cities are now being targeted by coalition air strikes.