NATO member Turkey said Tuesday it will not join the West-led military operations in Libya, while slashing the current interventions as potentially counter- productive.

"We will not participate with our fighting forces. Turkey will never ever be a side pointing weapons at the Libyan people," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech to deputies from his Justice and Development Party at the parliament.

He harshly criticized the West-led air strikes on Libya, saying such operations proved useless but increased loss of lives in the past.

"They are transformed into occupation and seriously harm the countries' unity," he said.

The words came after Erdogan held a meeting with high-level officials of the General Staff, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Intelligence Organization on Monday. U.S. President Barack Obama phoned Erdogan to discuss the situation in Libya late at night.

The UN Security Council last week passed a resolution on endorsing a no-fly zone and authorizing "all necessary measures" to protect civilians in Libya.

France, Britain and the United States, also NATO members, have been carrying out strikes individually on Libyan targets since Saturday.

Erdogan said Tuesday the UN should be the umbrella for a humanitarian operation in Libya.

Turkey prefers to be involved in the distribution of humanitarian aid in Libya and will explain its position to NATO allies on Wednesday, Erdogan said in remarks published in local paper Hurriyet on Tuesday.

As the NATO's sole Muslim member and a key figure in the alliance, Turkey is uncomfortable with military operations in Libya and has objected NATO intervention in the unrest-torn country.

Following a marathon run of meetings in Brussels, NATO ambassadors failed to agree on how the alliance would participate in enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya on Sunday.

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