At least 2,000 Libyan political and tribal leaders met March 6 near Benghazi and stated their desire for semi-autonomy in the country's eastern region. Delegates at the conference also announced plans to form a new governing council for eastern Libya. The eastern Libyan group that appears to be driving the federalism demands is the National Federal Union (NFU), which is calling for a return to the system that existed under Libya's former monarchy. Its 1951 constitution divided Libya into three administrative regions that were relics of Italian colonial rule — Tripolitania in the west, Cyrenaica in the east and southeast and Fezzan in the remainder of the country's desert interior. Though these divisions formally ceased to exist during former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's reign, they still are part of the nation's collective memory.
