Days,weeks,months8230; now 90 days,hopefully

New deadline for end to bombing,NATO to assume full command soon.

Overcoming squabbles,NATO prepared on Friday to assume leadership from the United States of the military campaign against Muammar Gaddafis forces,senior NATO officials said,while the allied effort won a rare military commitment in the Arab world when the United Arab Emirates said it would send warplanes to join patrols with Western allies.

NATO agreed that it would not only take over command and control of the no-fly zone,but also of the effort to protect civilians through aggressive coalition airstrikes on Gaddafis troops on the ground,the officials said. Details of the second part of the operation will be worked out in a formal military planning document over the next couple of days,the officials said,but all NATO countries took the political decision that the alliance would command and coordinate the entire military campaign.

France cautioned the operation would not be quick. I doubt it will be days, Admiral Edouard Guillaud told France Info radio. I think it will be weeks. I hope it will not take months.

A NATO official said on Friday planning for NATOs no-fly operation had assumed a mission lasting 90 days,but this could be extended or shortened as required.

There will be a meeting of coalition foreign ministers on Tuesday in London,as the French and British wanted,the officials said. That meeting and consequent meetings will deal with the larger political campaign,including sanctions and other measures designed to put more pressure on Gaddafi to quit.

A sticking point in the negotiations was what military officials call the no-drive zone, the bombing of Gaddafis ground forces,tanks and artillery outside Libyan cities. France wanted to have clearer leadership role while Turkey was concerned about its role turning into a larger operation involving ground troops.

France was placated by the London coalition,while Turkeys fears were allayed by putting the military campaign under the full control of NATO,which operates only by the unanimous consent of its member nations. The United States,which contributes most of NATOs military capability and traditionally dominates behind the scenes,is in this case eager to hand off operational responsibility,officials said.

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Meanwhile,representatives for the Gaddafi regime met with the African Union on Friday,in Ethiopia,as part of an effort to reach a ceasefire and political solution. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said a representative for the rebels would also attend,but that could not immediately be confirmed.

Military action against Gaddafi forces entered its seventh day on Friday with explosions around Tripoli overnight and French and British reports of strikes on ground forces in the east of the country.

Early on Friday,the United Arab Emirates said it would commit 12 aircraft six F-16 and six Mirage warplanes to join patrols enforcing the no-fly zone authorised a week ago by the UNSC,the official Emirates News Agency reported. It quoted the foreign minister,Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan,as saying the deployment would begin in the coming days.

Late Thursday night,an Obama administration official insisted NATO had agreed to assume responsibility for the no-fly and no-drive zones but said the details remained to be worked out. His statements appeared to contradict those of the secretary general of NATO,Anders Fogh Rasmussen,who had said NATO was still considering whether to take on broader responsibility for the war.STEVEN ERLANGER,ELISABETH BUMILLER amp; ALAN COWELL