PRESS ASSOCIATION -- Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi must relinquish power but may not have to leave Libya, Foreign Secretary William Hague has indicated.
Mr Hague said the fate of the dictator was "a question for the Libyans", claiming the country's future was not for the UK or France to determine.
The Foreign Secretary said he thought it would be best if Gaddafi did leave, adding that the British Government supported the International Criminal Court (ICC) which has issued an arrest warrant for the despot.
He was speaking at a press conference in London ahead of bilateral talks with French foreign minister Alain Juppe about how to resolve the situation in Libya.
Mr Hague said the UK and France were "absolutely united" in their approach to dealing with the dictator amid claims the French were growing impatient with the lack of military success.
Mr Hague refused to be drawn on the implications for the ICC of allowing the Libyan leader to remain in the country, dismissing the prospect as a "hypothetical route".
"What happens to Gaddafi is ultimately a question for the Libyans," Mr Hague said. "It is, as I said in my remarks earlier, for the Libyan people to determine their own future.
"What is absolutely clear, as Alain (Juppe) has said, is that whatever happens, Gaddafi must leave power. He must never again be able to threaten the lives of Libyan civilians nor to destabilise Libya once he has left power.
"Obviously him leaving Libya itself would be the best way of showing the Libyan people that they no longer have to live in fear of Gaddafi. But as I have said all along, this is ultimately a question for Libyans to determine."
Mr Hague received the backing of Mr Juppe, who said the UK and France were in "perfect co-operation" in Libya where they were working along "exactly the same lines".