TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Thursday he was against NATO intervention in Libya but had to go along with it, an admission that exposed the fragility of the alliance trying to unseat Muammar Gaddafi.
NATO warplanes have been bombing Libya under a U.N. mandate, but the alliance is under mounting strain because of the cost of the operation and the failure, after more than three months, to produce a decisive outcome.
"I was against this measure," Berlusconi said. "I had my hands tied by the vote of the parliament of my country. But I was against and I am against this intervention which will end in a way that no-one knows."
Some of the alliance bombing missions over Libya take off from military airbases in Italy.
There was no suggestion following Berlusconi's comments that Rome would withdraw the use of the bases. But Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said that the cost to Italy of the Libya operation would fall from 142 million euros in the first half of the year to less than 60 million euros in the second half as part of general defense spending cuts.
He said after a cabinet meeting on Thursday the aircraft carrier Garibaldi with three aircraft on board had been withdrawn, and their tasks would be taken on by land-based aircraft.
The comments from Rome came just a day after Libyan rebels made a big push toward Tripoli on two fronts.
Speaking at a book presentation in Rome, Berlusconi said: "I went to Paris and I said -- I can repeat this -- I would have stood with Mrs Merkel as far as this decision to intervene in the no fly zone is concerned."
He appeared to be referring to a March 19 meeting at which several Western powers decided to launch the military intervention. German Chancellor Angela Merkel chose not to involve her country in the operation.
"We posed very precise questions to the protagonists of this initiative -- that's to say President Sarkozy and Prime Minister David Cameron -- in the most recent meeting of the heads of government in Brussels," he said.
"The answer was that the war will end when there is, as we expect, a revolt by the population of Tripoli against the current regime."
A move to stop funding for President Barack Obama's military intervention in Libya was narrowly defeated in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Both political parties split over the measure, highlighting how tensions over U.S. involvement in Libya's civil war have crossed party lines and created unusual alliances.
Republicans and Democrats argued that President Obama violated the U.S. Constitution and the 1973 War Powers Resolution by failing to secure congressional authorization for U.S. military operations in the north African country.
Gaddafi has rejected any suggestion that he will give up power and he has described the NATO campaign as an act of colonial aggression aimed at stealing Libya's oil.
Potentially adding to the pressure on Italy to review its stance on Libya, a senior Libyan government spokesman said negotiations had begun with Russian and Chinese firms to take over the role of Italian energy firm ENI in oil and gas projects.
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