EU crisis summit on Libya set for March 11

(BRUSSELS) - European Union leaders are to gather March 11 for a special summit convened to respond to the crisis in Libya as well as to the turmoil sweeping Arab nations in Europe's Mediterranean backyard.

"In light of developments in the EU's southern neighbourhood, and especially in Libya, I convened an extraordinary European Council (or summit) on 11/03," EU president Herman Van Rompuy said Tuesday on his Twitter webpage.

Europe's 27 heads of state and government will meet ahead of a same-day long-planned summit of the 17 nations that share the euro, gathering in Brussels to finalise a debt crisis game-plan.

Also in town as momentum for a military response to Moamer Kadhafi appears to gather speed will be defence ministers from the 28-member NATO alliance.

The emergency talks follow a request for a summit from British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who in a joint statement dubbed Kadhafi's brutality as "totally unacceptable" and urged fresh options "for increasing pressure on the regime."

Cameron also raised "the importance of transforming the EU's approach to the region", a reference to a shabby era of upholding despots on Europe's southern flank which has come under sharp attack in past weeks from rights groups, Euro-MPs, analysts and even governments.

"The EU must change its policies, instead of backing the status quo it must support a community of democratic states," said Alvaro de Vaconcelas of the European Union Institute for Policy Studies.

If EU leaders appear ready to review decades of "failed" policies towards their Mediterranean neighbours, they stand divided on a potential human tsunami stemming from the chaos, an issue expected to feature prominently at the talks.

European states bordering the Mediterranean, notably Italy, are highly concerned by the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Libya and the associated risk of an exodus of refugees and migrants.

The numbers massing at Libya's borders with Egypt and Tunisia to escape Kadhafi's wrath was ballooning out of control Tuesday, the UN refugee agency said as warnings mounted of imminent food shortages.

Up to 75,000 people had fled to Tunisia since February 20, with the situation reaching "crisis-point" as tens of thousands await transport inland.

With up to 1.5 million would-be African migrants believed harboured in Libya, Italy, at the frontline of migration flows, has warned of a human tidal of "biblical proportions".

Yet at tough talks in Brussels last week, Rome failed to win support from northern Europe should floods of refugees and migrants wash up on its shores.

In a televised address to France on Sunday, Sarkozy said that "on the other side of the Mediterranean, an immense upheaval is underway".

"By setting democracy and freedom against all forms of dictatorship, these revolutions open a new era," he said. "We should have one goal: to help these people who have chosen to be free."

But he also warned Europe could face an "uncontrollable" wave of refugees fleeing North Africa if unrest continues.

"We do not know what the consequences of these events will be for migratory flows," he said.

The EU this week imposed the toughest international sanctions yet on Kadhafi's crumbling regime, ordering an asset freeze and visa ban against the embattled despot and 25 of his allies accused of brutalising civilians.

Moving quickly and with rare cohesion in hopes of preventing civil war and further bloodshed, EU nations agreed sanctions that ranged wider and targeted more individuals than those adopted by the United Nations at the weekend.

The decision to call a crisis summit at a time when NATO defence ministers meet across town comes amid increasing talk of imposing a no-fly zone over Libya to stop Kadhafi loyalists strafing unarmed protestors, a move which European leaders said would need UN approval.

China and Russia, whose consent would be required for a UN no-fly vote, Tuesday ramped up the pressure against Kadhafi, with Beijing urging an end to the violence and Moscow issuing its first clear call for him to quit.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the world should focus on implementing sanctions instead. "I think we must avoid becoming agitated and should focus on putting in place" this resolution first, he said in Geneva.