France and Italy Wednesday joined the U.K. in sending military advisers to assist Libya 's rebel shadow government in its Benghazi stronghold.

"We are going to help you," France 's President Nicolas Sarkozy told Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the head of Libya 's Transitional National Council, which leads the revolt against Moammar Gadhafi's 42-year-old rule, aides said.

French officials said Sarkozy and Abdel Jalil had discussed stepping up coalition air strikes against Gadhafi's forces, and insisted that the rebel leader had not requested support from coalition ground troops.

" France has placed a small number of liaison officers alongside our special envoy to Benghazi who are carrying out a liaison mission with the TNC," foreign ministry spokeswoman Christine Fage told reporters.

"The precise objective is to give the TNC essentially technical, logistical and organizational advice to reinforce the protection of civilians and to improve the distribution of humanitarian and medical aid."

"We have invited the French president to come visit Benghazi . I think that would be very important for the revolution's morale," Abdel Jalil said after the meeting. Sarkozy's office said it had "taken note" of the invitation.

Separately Italy --along with France and Qatar one of only three states to recognize the TNC--announced the dispatch of 10 officers.

"There is a clear understanding that the rebels have to be trained," Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa told reporters after meeting British Defense Minister Liam Fox in Rome .

The announcement came the day after France 's main ally in the drive to aid the to rebels defeat Gadhafi's forces, the U.K. said it would send advisers to help organize the stalled rebellion, amid heavy civilian casualties.

Western powers have nevertheless strongly denied they are preparing to break their taboo against putting foreign combat troops on the battlefield to bolster the two-month-old revolt.

"We are not envisaging troops on the ground, in any shape or form," government spokesman Francois Baroin told journalists following a cabinet meeting, adding that the advisers would number "fewer than 10."

Baroin also said France wasn't seeking new United Nations Security Council action that would give the allies a broader mandate to intervene in Libya .

"We are not taking the initiative to seek a new Security Council resolution. The French position is stable and unchanged on this problem of applying Resolution 1973," he said.

That resolution permitted the use of force to protect Libyan civilians, but explicitly forbade a "foreign occupation force"--a phrase which some states interpret as banning any ground intervention at all.

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