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International News Title: Obama dismisses Khadafy's love letter TRIPOLI, Libya -- Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy sent a message to US President Barack Obama on Wednesday, FOX News Channel confirmed, but White House officials were quick to dismiss the correspondence, claiming that the embattled despot frequently sends messages to Washington. Authorities in Tripoli and Washington both refused to reveal details of the letter. But a senior White House official told FOX that the Obama administration receives similar notes from Khadafy on a regular basis -- as often as once a month, according to one source. The administration does not take the notes very seriously and the president does not respond to them, the official explained. "We can confirm that there is a letter, obviously not the first," White House spokesman Jay Carney said aboard a Philadelphia-bound Air Force One Wednesday. "Words are different than actions," Carney was quoted as saying by AFP. Earlier Wednesday, the official Libyan news agency JANA reported that Khadafy sent Obama the message following the withdrawal of American planes from aerial operations. "The leader of the revolution [Khadafy] sent on Wednesday a message to US president Barack Obama after the United States withdrew from the aggressive, colonialist coalition crusading against Libya," said the agency. The report did not specify the contents of the message. "On background, an Administration official confirms that we have received a letter from Col. Khadafy. We're not going to comment on its contents," a White House spokesman told Sky News. Meanwhile, NATO insisted that the pace of air strikes against Khadafy's forces has not slowed since the military alliance took command March 31 of a bombing campaign that had been led by the US. The rebels and France urged it to do more to protect the city of Misrata, the scene of some of the fiercest fighting. Britain's defense ministry said it was switching four Typhoon jets from policing the no-fly zone to ground attack roles, Sky News said. "In agreement with NATO, the UK has today agreed to move four RAF Typhoons from an air defense role, policing the no-fly zone, to a ground attack role -- further bolstering NATO's ground attack capability," a statement from the ministry said. The alliance acknowledged that Khadafy had made it harder to target his heavy artillery by hiding tanks in populated areas and using human shields, AFP reported. "Misrata is our number one priority," NATO's deputy spokeswoman Carmen Romero said. "We have a clear mandate and we will do everything to protect the civilians of Misrata," Romero said, referring to the UN Security Council resolution permitting "all necessary measures" to defend Libya's population. The top commander of the rebel forces, Abdelfatah Yunis, accused NATO-led aircraft of doing nothing while loyalists kept up their 40-day assault. NATO "is letting the people of Misrata die every day," Yunis said in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. "If NATO waits one more week, there will be nothing left in Misrata." The French foreign minister Alain Juppe said the situation in Misrata, about 130 miles (215 kilometers) east of Tripoli, was not tenable and that he would discuss it with the head of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, AFP reported. Elsewhere, France pledged to open a sea corridor to let the Libyan rebels ship aid and supplies to the Mediterranean city. "We are going to ensure that ... aid comes from Benghazi and that at no moment Khadafy's military forces will be able to stop this," the French defense minister Gerard Longuet told France Inter radio. "Today [Wednesday], we have reopened [marine] traffic at Tobruk [an eastern oil port] and Benghazi, and so boats from Benghazi will be able ... to supply Misrata, because the coalition will prevent any action by the Khadafy navy," he said.Khadafy's message to Obama
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