* France has right to recognise Libya rebels -- EU's Ashton
* EU could recognise the movement if Arab League does
* Arab League to meet in Cairo on Saturday
By Luke Baker
BRUSSELS, March 10 (Reuters) - If the Arab League decides the movement fighting to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi is legitimate, the European Union may also recognise it, the EU's foreign affairs chief said on Thursday.
France became the first Western nation to give its full backing to the Libyan National Council on Thursday, saying it now regarded it as the legitimate representative of Libya's people, a move that adds pressure on Gaddafi to go.
But at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, no other EU member state was willing to follow France's lead. Britain said its policy was to recognise states, not groups within states, and Italy said the EU should act with one voice.
Ashton, who is in charge of forging a common foreign and security policy for the 27-nation EU, said France had every right to recognise the rebel movement, but said that she would rather wait to see if the Arab League recognises it when it meets to discuss the situation in Cairo on Saturday.
"My view is that we should decide our position as the 27 in conjunction with the Arab League and the importance of them giving us a lead from the Arab world on what's happened," she told reporters.
"If the Arab League said that this was the group of people that they thought would be the appropriate interlocutors that would help us to do decide what to do next... I do think the Arab League have a role to play in this for sure."
The Arab League groups 22 Arab states, including Saudia Arabia, Syria, Yemen, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon. Several of its members are headed by monarchs or have autocratic governments with little track record of acknowledging rebel movements.
Recognising the Libyan National Council, two members of which were invited to address the European Parliament this week, could lead EU states to open diplomatic offices in the territory it holds in northeast Libya, around the city of Benghazi. France has said it will send a diplomatic representative there.
Ashton said she had no reason to believe the same two members of the Council she met this week were anything other than Libyans committed to a democratic state without Gaddafi.
But European officials have raised some concerns that the group may harbour militant Islamists and say they have no evidence of its legitimacy or commitment to democratic values.
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