For three months French and British fighter jets have been bombarding Tripoli, trying to kill Gadaffi; now the French want to stop the military action and get him sat at the negotiating table.

Military action in Libya must end and Colonel Gaddafi be welcomed around the negotiating table, the French sensationally claimed today.

Continual bombing of the country is not working and diplomacy is the only solution - even if Gaddafi retains limited power - according to French defence minister Gerard Longuet.

In an apparent U-turn in policy, Mr Longuet said Gaddafi could remain in Libya  ‘in another room of the palace, with another title.’

He said: ‘We must now sit around a table. We will stop bombing as soon as the Libyans start talking to one another and the military on both sides go back to their bases.

'They can talk to each other because we’ve shown there is no solution through force.’

The development is hugely significant because President Sarkozy and David Cameron were widely viewed as the politicians responsible for driving the onslaught on Gaddafi. The British and French fighter jets bombarding Tripoli have illustrated what appeared to be a firm commitment to seeing Gaddafi killed.

In April, Mr Sarkozy held an emergency summit attended by Mr Cameron at the Elysée Palace when the French President announced that his pilots had already started attacking Gaddafi’s tanks and ground troops. Since then millions have been spent on the on-going campaign, yet Gaddafi remains in power, and his forces continue to repell rebel attacks. 

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued a summons for his arrest for human rights violations, together with the Colonel's 39-year-old son Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, who was educated at the London School of Economics.

On Sunday, French foreign minister Alain Juppe said negotiations would be likely with ‘a true ceasefire, under the control of the United Nations'. Mr Juppe said negotiations would involve the transitional council, but also ‘all Libyan players, and especially those in Tripoli who believed Gaddafi had no future'.

'It will be necessary to discuss a roadmap for a democratic process,' he said.

Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi told Algerian journalists today: ‘The truth is that we are negotiating with France, and not with the rebels.’