TRIPOLI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Libyan rebels will meet senior White House officials in Washington Friday, seeking both cash and diplomatic legitimacy in their war to topple Muammar Gaddafi.

The head of the rebel National Transitional Council’s executive bureau, Mahmoud Jebril, will meet President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, Tom Donilon, and other senior officials, the White House said in a statement.

Jebril, a U.S.-educated technocrat who has become the public face of the rebel council, made a plea for Washington to free up some $180 million in frozen Gaddafi funds to fund the rebels fighting to end his 41-year rule.

The Washington meeting comes a day after the council’s chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil met British Prime Minister David Cameron in London, securing a promise of more aid.

Rebels fighting Gaddafi for almost three months control Benghazi and the east of the country, while Gaddafi’s forces are entrenched in the capital Tripoli and nearly all of the west.

NATO-led forces are bombing Libya under a U.N. resolution authorizing them to protect civilians. The United States, Britain and France say they will maintain their air campaign until Gaddafi’s 41-year rule ends.

The rebels say they need funds urgently to pay salaries and run the areas under their control, and want international legitimacy to allow them access to frozen assets.

WASHINGTON, May 11 (Reuters) – The United States is taking a harsher tone toward China on human rights, saying its record is “deplorable” and calling it a “fool’s errand” to try to halt the march of freedom.

But rights advocates and analysts said it was by no means clear the tougher public stance would temper a Chinese crackdown on dissidents or presage a more muscular U.S. policy to advance rights in China.

In an interview with the Atlantic Magazine published on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took the Chinese to task in some of her most vivid language to date.

“We don’t walk away from dealing with China because we think they have a deplorable human rights record,” she said in the April 7 interview, which focused largely on political upheaval in the Middle East.

“They’re worried, and they are trying to stop history, which is a fool’s errand,” she added. “They cannot do it. But they’re going to hold it off as long as possible.”

In keeping with its normal practice, the State Department released a transcript of the interview after the magazine published its story, which fell on the final day of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue.

Both Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden also raised human rights at the start of that annual U.S.-China meeting on Monday, a high-profile setting that left no doubt that U.S. officials want to be more public in their criticism.

ROME (Reuters) – The world has to take swift action to arrest steadily rising food prices and step up its commitment to sustainable agriculture, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday.

“We must act now, effectively and cooperatively to blunt the negative effect of rising food prices,” she said in a speech to the United Nations food agency in Rome.

Rising food prices have become highly sensitive around the world after fuelling protests that toppled the rulers of Tunisia and Egypt earlier this year, with unrest spreading across North Africa and the Middle East.

The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization said on Thursday that world food prices rose slightly in April, boosted by concern about the U.S. grains crop, but they were still off record highs reached in February.

FAO Director General Jacques Diouf told Reuters Insider on Tuesday a weak trend in world food prices had already begun to reverse and prices were set to rise again as concerns persist over Chinese and U.S. winter crops.

Friday agricultural commodities remained under pressure on mounting economic concerns, with U.S. corn futures down more than 2 percent to their lowest in over a month.

But traders said corn’s background factors remained bullish on tight old-crop supplies and delays in spring planting.

ABBOTTABAD/ROME (Reuters) – A senior Pakistani security official said U.S. troops killed Osama bin Laden in “cold blood”, fuelling a global controversy and straining a vital relationship Washington was trying to repair on Thursday.

And Pakistan’s army, in its first comment since Monday’s raid, threatened to halt cooperation with its military sponsor if it repeated what it called a violation of sovereignty.

But U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washinton was still anxious to maintain its alliance with Islamabad.

“It is not always an easy relationship. You know that,” she said.

“But, on the other hand, it is a productive one for both our countries and we are going to continue to cooperate between our governments, our militaries, our law-enforcement agencies, but most importantly between the American and Pakistani people.”

Americans are questioning how the al Qaeda leader could live for years in some comfort in a garrison town near the Pakistani capital. Some call for cutting billions of dollars in U.S. aid.

As Clinton was meeting European and Arab allies in Rome, Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Kayani, issued a statement saying any new U.S. raids would mean a possible end to cooperation with the Pentagon on security and intelligence.

ROME (Reuters) – The United States aims to release billions of dollars in frozen Libya-owned assets to help rebels fast running out of cash, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the anti-Gaddafi “contact group” in Rome on Thursday.

Washington has frozen some $30 billion in assets owned by Muammar Gaddafi’s government but there are legal obstacles to accessing them. Nor can the rebels, based mainly in eastern Libya, sell oil abroad due to United Nations sanctions.

Clinton said Washington would try to pass legislation to allow the funds to be channeled to the Libyan people.

The rebel Transitional National Council (TNC), based in the eastern city of Benghazi, says it needs about $2-3 billion in immediate aid. A spokesman said the rebels only had funds to pay for basic needs until the end of May.

“I will be formally announcing our non-lethal assistance so I think that there is an effort with urgency to meet the requests that the TNC is making,” Clinton said.

Thursday’s meeting of the NATO-backed coalition against Gaddafi comes after the two-month conflict descended into stalemate, with the rebels unable to defeat Gaddafi’s forces, despite NATO air strikes.

The contact group meeting agreed to create an instrument, dubbed the Temporary Financial Mechanism, to get money to the rebels, but there has been a cautious response from Western governments already grappling with their own financial problems.

ROME/ABBOTTABAD (Reuters) – The United States said on Thursday it would stand by its ally Pakistan despite the strains in the relationship exposed by the discovery and killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. troops close to the Pakistani capital.

“It is not always an easy relationship, you know that,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on a visit to Rome.

“But, on the other hand, it is a productive one for both our countries and we are going to continue to cooperate between our governments, our militaries, our law-enforcement agencies, but most importantly between the American and Pakistani people.”

Some Americans, including many in Congress, have suggested that Washington attach more strings to the billions of dollars in aid it gives Pakistan, or even cut off Islamabad altogether.

Others say Washington needs Pakistan as a partner to fight al Qaeda and other Islamist militants, as well as to pursue the war in Afghanistan it launched 10 years ago in response to bin Laden’s attack on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001.

In the aftermath of bin Laden’s death, Clinton said Washington and its allies must continue working with Pakistan to fight al Qaeda in that country and Afghanistan.

“38 INTENSE MINUTES”

ROME (Reuters) – An international coalition against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi met on Thursday to seek ways of getting funds to an ill-equipped rebel movement which is fast running out of cash.

As the conflict in Libya ground into stalemate, the rebel Transitional National Council (TNC) has appealed for loans of up to $3 billion to meet pressing needs including food and medicine.

The request has so far met a cautious response from Western governments already grappling with severe financial problems of their own, but the meeting in Rome is expected to seek ways around the legal hurdles hindering funding the rebels.

“We’ll be discussing a financial mechanism, we’ll be discussing other forms of aid,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at a joint news conference with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini ahead of the third meeting of the coalition, which groups more than 20 countries.

“I will be formally announcing our non-lethal assistance so I think that there is an effort with urgency to meet the requests that the TNC is making,” she said.

In a speech to be delivered to the meeting, Frattini said a fund called the Temporary Financial Mechanism would be established to funnel money to the TNC.

He thanked Qatar, the leading Arab supporter of the Libyan uprising, for its efforts to create the fund.

ROME/ABBOTTABAD (Reuters) – The United States said on Thursday it would stand by its ally Pakistan despite the strains in the relationship exposed by the discovery and killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. troops close to the Pakistani capital.

“It is not always an easy relationship, you know that,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on a visit to Rome.

“But, on the other hand, it is a productive one for both our countries and we are going to continue to cooperate between our governments, our militaries, our law-enforcement agencies, but most importantly between the American and Pakistani people.”

Some Americans, including many in Congress, have suggested that Washington attach more strings to the billions of dollars in aid it gives Pakistan, or even cut off Islamabad altogether.

Others say Washington needs Pakistan as a partner to fight al Qaeda and other Islamist militants, as well as to pursue the war in Afghanistan it launched 10 years ago in response to bin Laden’s attack on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001.

In the aftermath of bin Laden’s death, Clinton said Washington and its allies must continue working with Pakistan to fight al Qaeda in that country and Afghanistan.

“38 INTENSE MINUTES”

ROME (Reuters) – The U.S. relationship with Pakistan is not always easy but has been productive for both sides, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday, after the killing of Osama bin Laden raised questions about the alliance.

The discovery that the al Qaeda leader was able to live for years in the military garrison town of Abbottabad, just north of the Pakistani capital, has raised doubt in the United States about whether Pakistan was a reliable ally against militants.

Clinton acknowledged that Washington’s relationship with Islamabad was awkward at times, but said it was still important.

“It is not always an easy relationship, you know that,” Clinton said, ahead of a meeting in Rome of a NATO-backed coalition against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

“But on the other hand it is a productive one for both our countries and we are going to continue to cooperate between our governments, our militaries, our law-enforcement agencies but most importantly between the American and Pakistani people.”

Pakistani officials say they are committed to fighting extremism and Pakistan has suffered at the hands of militants as much as any country.

Clinton declined to comment on details of the special forces operation in which bin Laden was killed in Pakistan on Sunday. U.S. officials initially said bin Laden was armed but later said he was not, raising concern among some Europeans over whether his killing was lawful.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The greatest casualty of the U.S. operation to kill Osama bin Laden, besides the al Qaeda leader himself, may be the U.S.-Pakistani relationship.

That the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks was found in a three-story house in a Pakistani town prompted umbrage in the U.S. capital, where lawmakers said U.S. aid may hinge on what, if anything, Pakistan knew or suspected of bin Laden’s whereabouts.

The bin Laden bombshell came as the two countries seek to repair ties frayed by friction over U.S. drone attacks on militants on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan and Pakistan’s six-week imprisonment of a CIA contractor this winter.

While President Barack Obama and aides said Pakistan had helped lead them to bin Laden’s doorstep in a complex in the city of Abbottabad they also said it was fair to question U.S. aid.

In the U.S. Congress, the questions were sharp.

“The United States provides billions of dollars in aid to Pakistan,” said Senator Frank Lautenberg, a fellow Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee that apportions government spending. “Before we send another dime, we need to know whether Pakistan truly stands with us in the fight against terrorism.”

Since 2001, Congress, which holds the U.S. government purse strings, has approved about $20 billion for Pakistan in direct aid and military payments, making it one of the top recipients of U.S. aid according to the Congressional Research Service.