In an apparent bid to bolster the loyalty of Colonel Qaddafi’s armed forces, Libyan state television said Friday without details that the military would promote all its officers, implying a raise in pay. A government spokesman, Musa Ibrahim, said that similar raises were carried out during earlier crises, like Colonel Qaddafi’s failed war with Chad in the late 1980s.

The London meeting of coalition foreign ministers and subsequent meetings will deal with the larger political campaign, including sanctions and other measures intended to put more pressure on Colonel Qaddafi to quit. It will also have representation from the United Nations, the Arab League and the African Union. But that meeting of what the British are calling “the contact group” will not be running the military side of the operation, the officials said.

Left unresolved, of course, is how long the campaign will last, because Colonel Qaddafi shows no sign of obeying the United Nations Security Council resolution demanding a cease-fire and refuses to pull his troops back to barracks. At the same time, the ragtag opposition may not be strong enough, even with the coalition’s air power, to force the colonel from his redoubt in Tripoli.

NATO officials said Friday they thought the no-fly zone would last about three months, but Pentagon officials privately expressed fears that it could last much longer.

A sticking point in the negotiations to broadening NATO’s control was what military officials call the “no-drive zone,” the bombing of Colonel Qaddafi’s ground forces, tanks and artillery outside Libyan cities. France wanted to have a clearer leadership role in the campaign, while Turkey was concerned about the operation’s evolving into one involving ground troops. Many countries, like Italy and Norway, however, said they would participate only if NATO ran the entire military operation.

France was placated by the London coalition, while Turkey’s 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.