Senegal president urges Gaddafi to step down

The Senegalese president has told Al Jazeera that he is not optimistic about the outcome of the conflict in Libya. 

Abdoulaye Wade was speaking after making a one-day trip to Benghazi on Thursday, in which he became the first foreign head of state to visit the seat of the Libyan opposition. 

Senegal was also one of the first countries to recognise the Transitional National Council as the legitimate authority in Libya. 

Mr Wade has called for an international conference on Libya to be held in Africa – and for a national conference to be held in Libya to draw up plans for democratic reform.

During his visit to Benghazi, Mr Wade repeated his call to Muammar Gaddafi to step down, saying it was in the Libyan leader’s own interest to do so.  

In an interview in Paris, the president told Al Jazeera’s Jacky Rowland that he made the trip because he wanted to repeat his formal recognition of the council on Libyan soil.