By Joseph Logan and Arshad Mohammed
TRIPOLI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Libyan rebels will meet senior White House officials in Washington Friday to seek cash and diplomatic legitimacy in their battle to topple Muammar Gaddafi.
The United States, Britain and France say they will maintain their NATO-led air campaign until Gaddafi is forced from power but the rebels say they also need cash to hold their besieged positions on the ground.
Libyan state television said a NATO strike on the eastern city of Brega Friday killed at least 16 civilians and wounded up to 40. It showed footage of at least nine bodies with multiple wounds, wrapped in blankets at an unknown location.
It was not immediately possible to confirm the report.
Rebels fighting the Libyan leader's army 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.
The rebels have made a plea for Washington to free up some $180 million (110 million pounds) in frozen Gaddafi assets to fund their campaign.
The Washington meeting comes a day after the council's chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil met Prime Minister David Cameron in London, securing a promise of more aid.
"To those who stand behind Gaddafi they must know his regime is ending. There is no place for Muammar Gaddafi in Libya's future," Jalil told Al Arabiya in comments Friday, promising amnesty to anyone who defects from Gaddafi's side.
Russia, which is critical of the NATO mission, called on Friday for talks between the rebels and the Libyan government.
Moscow also said it was up to the U.N. Security Council to decide how to distribute Gaddafi's frozen assets, and argued that the funds should not be used to arm either side.
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 the frozen assets.
Food, fuel and medical equipment are in short supply in the rebel-controlled Western Mountains region, where the main delivery route is under threat from Gaddafi forces.
Doctors have been forced to open makeshift medical theatres and say they are struggling to treat the wounded
NATO forces bombed Gaddafi's compound Thursday, and rebels say NATO air strikes helped them secure a major victory this week in seizing the airport in the besieged city of Misrata, their only major stronghold in the west.
GADDAFI ON TELEVISION
Libyan television showed footage of Gaddafi this week ending doubt about his fate. He had not been seen in public for nearly two weeks following an air strike that killed his youngest son.
Tripoli says most Libyans support Gaddafi. It calls the rebels armed criminals and al Qaeda militants and says NATO's intervention is an act of colonial aggression.
Libyan officials showed reporters the scene of Thursday's overnight NATO air strike on the compound and said three people were killed and 25 wounded in the attack.
Government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said the strikes hit near a spot where dozens of Libyans come every night, some with families, to shout slogans in support of Gaddafi.
He denied the compound contained any military facilities and pointed to a small park near one of the craters where children were playing on a carousel.
An official at NATO headquarters said the target it hit was a large command and control bunker complex.
Thousands of people have been killed since the revolt broke out against Gaddafi's rule in late February.
A Frenchman died of a gunshot wound after he and four other French nationals were stopped at a police checkpoint in Benghazi, the French Foreign ministry said Thursday. It had no information about who the man was or why he was in Benghazi.
The man was the chief executive of SECOPEX, a French private military company, according to a report on the website of the Brussels-based European Strategic Intelligence and Security Centre. The report could not be immediately confirmed.
The French Foreign Ministry said it was still seeking details. Spokesman Bernard Valero said Paris was also trying to find out if one of the detained men was a journalist.
(Reporting by Matt Robinson in Zintan, Sami Aboudi in Cairo , Alexandra Sage in Paris, Thomas Grove in Moscow, Matt Spetalnick and David Alexander in Washington)
(Writing by Sylvia Westall; editing by Ralph Boulton)
