20101213
reuters

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya will scale back its efforts to stem the flow of illegal migrants from Africa to Europe unless the European Union pays it 5 billion euros a year, a government minister said on Monday.

Oil exporter Libya intercepts thousands of sub-Saharan Africans each year crossing its territory on their way to Europe, but says it is not fair that it has to shoulder the burden of defending the EU's borders.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, on a visit to Italy in August, demanded that the EU make the annual payment of 5 billion euros to cover its costs.

"If there is no money, there will be no security, there will be no guards (on the borders)," Abdalfatah Yunes Elabedi, Libya's public security minister, told reporters at a meeting of north African and southern European interior ministers.

"We thought the situation would not reach this point because it would be a disaster for the Europeans.

"Either they do what they have to do, in which case we will be grateful to them, or they will bear responsibility for their decision," he said at the meeting in Tripoli.

The minister said that, as part of the funding row, Libya had already suspended some projects related to combating illegal migration.