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WASHINGTON, June 7 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday it is just a matter of time before Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is ousted, after NATO intensified air strikes on Tripoli.
Obama, speaking at a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, described "significant" progress in the NATO drive to protect Libyan civilians and rebels from attacks by Gaddafi loyalists.
"What you are seeing across the country is an inexorable trend of the regime forces being pushed back, being incapacitated," Obama said at the White House. "I think it is just a matter of time before Gaddafi goes."
Obama and Merkel steered clear of any public comment on differences over the Western-led air campaign. The United States and other key allies endorsed military action against Libya but Germany confounded its NATO partners by refusing to commit its forces.
Obama handed control of the air campaign in Libya to NATO after initial strikes crippled Gaddafi's air defenses and he has made clear the United States, already entangled in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, would stick to a limited military role.
Obama said Germany's deployment of additional personnel and resources in the war in Afghanistan had freed up other NATO allies to increase support for the Libya mission.
Echoing Obama's comments, Merkel told reporters: "Gaddafi needs to step down and he will step down. I'm convinced of that because we have made great progress."
She suggested Germany would find other ways to help.
"When we have the talks on this, we agree that Germany ... will be showing that it is responsible and committed to the Libyan cause. There will be a lot of problems still to contend with," Merkel said.
NATO aircraft hit the Libyan capital on Tuesday in the most sustained bombardment since Western forces began air strikes in March. A defiant Gaddafi vowed to fight to the end.
Gaddafi's troops and the rebels have been in a stalemate for weeks, neither able to hold territory on a road between Ajdabiyah and the government-held oil town of Brega.
Rebels control the east of Libya, the western city of Misrata and mountains near the border with Tunisia. They have been unable to advance on the capital against Gaddafi's better-equipped forces, despite NATO air strikes. (Reporting by Matt Spetalnick and Laura MacInnis; Editing by John O'Callaghan)
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