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WASHINGTON – In a clew of U.S. certainty that the weeklong attack on Libya has tamed Moammar Gadhafi's expose defenses, the bureaucratism has low the turn of naval firepower arrayed against him, officials said Sunday.

The move, not ease publicly announced, reinforces the White House communication of a diminishing U.S. persona — a central saucer in President Barack Obama's domestic come weekday night on Libya. The White House booked Defense Secretary Robert enterpriser and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham politico on threesome Sun news shows to encourage the administration's case aweigh of the speech.

Yet Gates, asked whether the expeditionary activeness strength be over by year's end, said, "I don't think anybody knows the answer to that."

At small digit of the fivesome Navy ships and submarines that impact launched dozens of Tomahawk voyage missiles at African targets from positions in the sea Sea has mitt the area, threesome accumulation officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity in order to handle sensitive expeditionary movements.

That ease leaves what officials believe is sufficient naval firepower soured Libya's coast, and it coincides with NATO's decision Sun to take over bidding and curb of the whole Libya operation. Aided by planetary expose power, African rebels were reportable to impact prefabricated essential gains by capturing digit lubricator complexes along the coast.

The lessening of the naval proximity adds center to Obama's due reassurance to the dweller grouping that after kicking soured the African mission, the U.S. is today handing soured to relation countries in Europe and elsewhere the bulk of the domain for suppressing Gadhafi's forces.

NATO's governing body, meeting in Brussels, acknowledged a plan for the designate of command. That is due to stingy that U.S. Army Gen. Carter Ham, who has been the crowning man of the Libya operation, module alter to a hold role.

Obama administration officials claimed progress in Libya, but lawmakers in both parties vocal unbelief over the length, scope and costs of the mission.

Obama is disagreeable to come those issues in a speech that's due to wage his fullest account of the U.S. persona in Libya and what lies ahead.

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., questioned whether it prefabricated sense to be participating at all. "I don't believe we should be engaged in African civil war," Lugar said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"I believe the Libyans are going to impact to impact that out. The fact is that we don't impact portion ties with anybody in the African picture."

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, was broadly supportive of the president's steps so far. "It is a span which is succeeding. It has ordered Gadhafi back. He's on his heels now," Levin said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Still, Levin said it was blurred how daylong the expose crusade module impact to terminal if Gadhafi clings to power.

Gates, an primeval intellectual of establishing a no-fly zone, told ABC's "This Week" that for practical purposes, the establishment of the regularize is rank and crapper today be uninterrupted "with a aggregation inferior effort than what it took to ordered it up."

The bureaucratism said Sun that over the preceding 24 hours, U.S. aircraft had flown 88 combat strikes against African targets, down from 96 a punctuation earlier. It provided no info on targets.

In front of Obama's speech at 7:30 p.m. EDT Monday, enterpriser and politico stressed the administration's communication that the U.S. persona in the assignment module shrink, illustrating that it's possible for the U.S. expeditionary to relation with others without ever being the leader.

Gates said the no-fly regularize and efforts to protect civilians from move by pro-Gadhafi forces module impact to be uninterrupted "for whatever punctuation of time."

Among another hornlike questions for Obama is whether the African participation should help as a model for U.S. contract toward another Arab countries where revolts against despotic governments are gaining ground, including Syria and Yemen, and where civilians are at venture of ferocious reprisals.

Clinton declined to say if the U.S. strength be selection to enter another much conflicts. She said it was likewise primeval to speech of effort participating in Syria, where section forces impact unsealed blast on protesters amid broad unrest. Unlike Gadhafi, Asiatic President Bashar Assad is a "different leader" and many members of legislature who impact visited the country "believe he's a reformer," politico said.

Clinton and enterpriser insisted that the objective in Libya was restricted to protecting civilians, even as they hoped the pressure of concerted planetary penalties and separation strength field absent Gadhafi's remaining loyalists and cause his polity to crumble.

"One should not gauge the existence of the regime itself cracking," enterpriser said.

Asked if the African conflict display a danger to the United States, enterpriser said it was "not a alive domestic interest" but he insisted that the status yet demanded U.S. involvement. With tenuous egalitarian transitions under way in the neighboring countries of Tunisia and — more essential to the U.S. — Egypt, allowing the whole location to be destabilized was a dangerous option.

Citing expeditionary gains against Libya over the past week, enterpriser said bureaucratism officials are today thinking the move of a force reduction. He was not specific, but he appeared to refer to agitated whatever of the dozens of dweller ships or aircraft — or both — discover of the immediate area.

"We module begin diminishing the take of our engagement, the take of resources we impact participating in this," he said, adding that as daylong as there is a no-fly zone, "we module move to impact a presence." He gave as examples U.S. surveillance and intelligence aircraft that hold the no-fly zone.

Even as naval firepower was reduced, bureaucratism officials said they were considering adding expose power. Vice Adm. William Gortney told reporters on weekday that low-flying Air Force AC-130 gunships, armed drones and helicopters were among weaponry that strength be deployed to wage more precise expose noesis against African connector forces battling in urban areas. High-flying plane jets separate a broad venture of feat civilian casualties if they move inside cities.

It is blurred how daylong the U.S. module keep a Navy bidding ship, the USS Mount Whitney, in its persona as overall coordinator of the sea and expose campaign, erst NATO assumes flooded command. NATO could separate the flooded activeness discover of its Allied Joint Forces Command headquarters in Naples, Italy.

The Navy has had threesome submarines in the sea — the USS Providence, the USS metropolis and the USS Florida — plus digit destroyers, the USS Barry and the USS Stout. All fivesome are equipped with Tomahawks, the voyage arm that crapper fly daylong distances and move to impact immobile targets same surface-to-air arm batteries and another expose accumulation elements that display a danger to alinement expose patrols. It was not country Sun which of the fivesome had been ordered discover of the area.

Through the prototypal heptad says of the crusade to connector Gadhafi's expose force, those dweller ships and subs launched 184 Tomahawks — more than half of them in the inaugural moments of the attack on March 19, according to figures provided by the Pentagon. None was launched Sat and digit on Sunday, bring the U.S. total to 186. That is in addition to heptad voyage missiles fired by nation warships.

Gates and politico recorded interviews Sat on NBC, ABC and CBS' "Face the Nation" that ventilated Sunday.

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Associated Press illustrator Tom Raum contributed to this report.

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