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William Hague has defended the military strike that killed one of Colonel Gaddafi's sons in Tripoli over the weekend.
Speaking in the Commons this afternoon the foreign secretary said Sunday's attack was in line with UN resolution 1973 which authorised military action to protect civilians in Libya.
He told MPs that Nato had saved "thousands of civilian lives" through the imposition of the no-fly zone and rejected accusations that the alliance was stepping beyond legal bounds.
Hague said the operation was "an attack on a command and control location" and the targeting of individuals depended entirely on how they behaved and "where they are at the time".
Gaddafi's son Saif al-Arab and three of the Libyan leader's grandchildren were killed at a villa in the Bab al-Aziziya neighbourhood of Tripoli. Gaddafi himself was present in the building but was unhurt.
In a statement issued soon after the strike, Nato said it planned and conducted its strikes with "great deliberation to minimize the risk to innocent people".
"All Nato's targets are military in nature and have been clearly linked to the Qadhafi regime's systematic attacks on the Libyan population and populated areas. We do not target individuals," said lieutenant-general Charles Bouchard, commander of the Nato operation.
But several MPs raised concerns today about the scope of the mission and Britain's involvement in it. Labour's Jeremy Corbyn said Nato should stop the "bombing of civilian targets".
"Would the foreign secretary confirm it now appears the alliance has given up on a diplomatic solution and is now engaged in regime change?" he said.
David Winnick (Lab, Walsall South) asked the foreign secretary: "Is it now the case, despite denials, that first and foremost, it is regime change which is the policy of Nato and secondly the policy is to kill Gaddafi?"
While John Baron, the only Conservative to vote against military action in Libya, questioned what evidence there had been that the compound had in fact been a "command and control centre".
But Hague insisted all missions conducted by military jets policing the no-fly zone were done in order to protect civilians.
"It is Nato and its allies that have saved probably thousands of civilian lives," he said. "Civilian casualties would be immense indeed because of what the Gaddafi regime would do."
He added: "Of course there must be a political settlement but Colonel Gaddafi can open the way for that by departing from power."
"We want Gaddafi to go; virtually the whole world wants Gaddafi to go," he said.
Hague held talks with the secretary general of the Arab League in Cairo over the weekend and he told MPs that there was "no indication" that the attack had damaged the coalition.
"The Arab league continues to support our efforts" he said.
The foreign secretary is due to travel to Rome tomorrow to attend a meeting of the International Contact Group on Libya where he will meet with other foreign ministers including Hilary Clinton.
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