World powers agreed Tuesday that Moammar Gadhafi should step down after 42 years as Libya's ruler but did not discuss arming the rebels who are seeking to oust him.

Top diplomats from up to 40 countries, the United Nations, NATO and the Arab League came to that conclusion Tuesday at crisis talks in London on the future of the North African nation.

"One thing is quite clear and has to be made very clear to Gadhafi: His time is over. He must go," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in a statement. "We must destroy his illusion that there is a way back to business as usual if he manages to cling to power."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, however, told reporters the subject of arming rebels simply did not come up.

"That was not one of the subjects for discussion," Hague said. "That was not raised at the conference and it was not on the agenda for discussion."

Hague's comments suggest that the U.N.-backed coalition cobbled together to defend civilians from Gadhafi's onslaught is still hanging back from throwing its entire weight behind the ill-organized rebels, whose exact makeup and motives remain unclear.