PARIS - International forces are seeking to weaken but not to kill Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi by bombarding his strategic sites, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Wednesday.

"Our aim is not to kill Gadhafi ... We are targeting military sites in Tripoli" Juppe said on news channel France 24, describing as "collateral damage" the death of one of the ruler's sons in a recent NATO airstrike.

"There is no question of getting bogged down in Libya," he said, adding that he hopes the firing and bombing in Libya will last no longer than a few weeks, a few months at the most.

Juppe rejected a cease-fire along the lines of the one proposed by Gadhafi, which he said would risk partitioning the country between east and west. He insisted that government troops withdraw from towns they have occupied.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in on Tuesday that France planned a conference of "friends of Libya" to work on a political transition in the country. Paris recognizes the rebels' Transitional National Council (TNC).

Juppe said that the gathering would take place in the "coming weeks" and would be discussed by ministers at a Libya contact group in Rome on Thursday.

"The main aim is to develop a mechanism for financing the TNC," he said.

"It is not very easy. There are Libyan assets that are frozen."

AFP-China News service