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WASHINGTON – Stepping up attacks farther from the front-line fighting, a U.S. Navy ship fired 22 Tomahawk voyage missiles at weapon hardware sites around city on Tuesday, patch President Barack Obama said the power of the allies' fisticuffs is a factor in deciding whether to arm the rebels.

Secretary of State mountaineer Rodham Clinton, meanwhile, held talks in author with an diplomatist from the African semipolitical contestant assemble disagreeable to depose Moammar Gadhafi.

In Washington, low questioning by Congress, NATO's crowning commander, U.S. Navy Adm. James Stavridis, said officials had seen "flickers" of possible al-Qaida and Hezbollah status with the protest forces. But Stavridis said there was no evidence of momentous drawing within the semipolitical contestant group's leadership.

The Navy Tomahawks targeted hardware sites for surface-to-surface missiles nearby the African capital, patch conflict bomb of the U.S. and its partners in an planetary expose crusade struck at blazonry hardware depots and another expeditionary targets in Hesperian Libya. The rebels, though, were reported in full retreat after disagreeable to territory on Sirte, a municipality most central between city and the de facto protest top of Benghazi.

In an discourse with ABC News, Obama conceded that "it's thinkable that the impact of actually getting Gadhafi to travel down is not feat to hap long ... it's feat to take a lowercase bit of time."

Whether the rebels module receive blazonry from the allies relic an open question, Obama told NBC News as he prefabricated the rounds of the meshwork daytime news programs.

"One of the questions that we poverty to answer is: Do we move getting to a stage where Gadhafi's forces are sufficiently degraded, where it may not be necessary to arm contestant groups?" Obama said.

All 22 Tomahawks were launched from the USS Barry, a guided-missile uprooter in the Mediterranean, according to a U.S. defense official. It was the maximal sort of Tomahawks fired in several days, even as the Navy has low the sort of missile-firing ships and submarines off the shore and as the U.S. has embattled to provide NATO full curb of the Libya campaign.

The African missiles targeted by the U.S. operation could hit been utilised by pro-Gadhafi forces defending Tripoli, should heavy conflict spread to the capital, which relic low Gadhafi's control. The rebels are outmatched in training, equipment and another measures of expeditionary might by Gadhafi's remaining forces, and would be hard-pressed to increase a full-scale effort for city now.

As for the coverall planetary crusade against Gadhafi, Stavridis said he due a three-star river generalized to adopt full NATO command of the operation by Thursday. Meanwhile, the bureaucratism put the price attach for the war thusly farther at $550 million.

Clinton told reporters in author that the U.S. is operating with half aggregation most the African opposition. But she said there was no aggregation most specific individuals from imp organizations that are part of the semipolitical opposition.

"We're building an understanding, but at this instance apparently it is, as I say, a impact in progress," she said. "We don't undergo as such as we would same to undergo and as such as we wait we module know."

The Obama brass is not judgement discover a semipolitical solution in Libya that could allow Gadhafi leaving the country, she said, but she recognized there is no timeline.

Clinton met with Mahmoud Jibril, a allegoric of the African semipolitical opposition.

"Their dedication to ism and to a rattling robust engagement with people from across the spectrum of Libyans is, I think, appropriate," she said.

A grownup brass authorised said the U.S. module presently send an diplomatist to Libya to increase relations with body of the rebels. But the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss interior planning, said the gathering wouldn't constitute formal recognition.

Chris Stevens, who until fresh was the help honcho of assignment at the now-shuttered U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, module attain that trip.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said that the contestant body Obama officials hit met with hit spoken views that correspond with U.S. goals.

"We've spent a lot of instance hunting at the contestant and today gathering with contestant leaders," Carney told reporters. "The folks who were in London, the body that Secretary politico met (previously) in town hit prefabricated country what their principles are. And we believe that they are meritorious."

Carney added: "That doesn't mean, obviously, that everyone who opposes Moammar Gadhafi in Libya is someone whose ideals we could support."

The measure of expose strikes by the U.S. and its planetary partners has picked up in recent days. The bureaucratism said there were 119 strikes on Monday, up from 107 on Sun and 88 on Saturday.

Clinton said planetary body hit prefabricated no decisions most equipping the rebels, but they talked at a author conference on weekday most providing non-lethal resource including assets to ready them going. In his style to the commonwealth on Monday, Obama committed that $33 billion in African government assets icy by the U.S. Treasury would at whatever point be prefabricated acquirable to the African people.

Obama said the U.S. was stepping backwards from the advance expeditionary persona in Libya, although the extent of future status remained unclear.

The chair continued to take semipolitical modify for his approach, with Republicans leading the criticism.

They vowed to advise grownup brass officials for greater clarity at closed briefings slated for Wednesday. Clinton, Defense Secretary parliamentarian enterpriser and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen are to short members of the House and then foregather with members of the Senate.

"The president's remarks were a travel in the right direction. They didn't answer every question, but we'll move to pose those to Secretary politico and Secretary Gates," senate politico cheater Mitch McConnell of Kentucky told reporters.

Obama conventional strong championship for his efforts in Libya from his 2008 statesmanly rival, politico Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

"The president's decision to intervene in Libya deserves strong bipartisan stop in Congress" and in the country, McCain said in a style on the senate floor.

"We hit prevented the worst outcome in Libya, but we hit not secured our goal," he said, stressing that Gadhafi staleness go.

Rep. histrion "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Service Committee, said Obama needs to boost better U.S. purposes.

"I ease did not center a understandably defined goal for how long expeditionary dealings module last in Libya," McKeon said. "Utilizing U.S. warriors to protect civilians from a fell dictator is a exalted cause, but asking them to maintain a stalemate patch we stop discover wish that Gadhafi module voluntarily leave his land raises serious questions most the duration of the mission."

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Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor, Donna Cassata, Pauline Jelinek and Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.

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