Cameron and Sarkozy land in Libya to meet National Transitional Council

Britain and France aim to deliver aid and discuss how to stabilise the country as the hunt continues to find Gaddafi

NTC leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil (c) is to meet Cameron and Sarkozy during their trip. Photograph: Mohamed Messara/EPA

David Cameron landed in liberated Tripoli this morning to undertake a high-risk visit to the Libyan capital along with the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, the other main western champion of the five-month Nato bombing campaign that eventually ousted Colonel Gaddafi from power.

William Hague, the foreign secretary, is also on the visit, along with the french intellectual Bernard-Henry Lévy, who persuaded Sarkozy that a victory for the Libyan rebels was essential if the momentum of the Arab Spring was to be retained.

Cameron is bringing with him an aid package and will hold talks with the leaders of the National Transitional Council (NTC) on the progress they are making on stabilisation, driving out the remaining pockets of Gaddafi-supporting resistance in the south of the country and preparing for a democratic future.

It will be the first visit to Libya by western leaders since the collapse of Gaddafi's regime, and is likely to spark big scenes of celebration for the two men who championed the Libyan revolution, at some political and diplomatic risk. It is also expected that Cameron will fly to Benghazi, the cradle of the resistance and still the base for the NTC.

The trip has been under discussion for over a fortnight, but the two leaders have been advised that the security situation is safe enough for them to travel to a city that only three weeks ago appeared to be under the iron grip of Gaddafi.

It had been intended that the trip remain unannounced until the two leaders reached the Libyan capital this morning, but news leaked in Paris, and was picked up on international websites. Downing Street, on security advice, refused to confirm the planned visit until Cameron's plane had landed in Tripoli. The NTC had also confirmed the trip.

The visit is clearly designed to reap some domestic political kudos for what has in effect been the first war that Cameron himself waged rather than simply inherited from the Labour government.

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