Libya''s regime might have to face international justice for its deadly crackdown on protesters, France said Thursday, as diplomats debated how best to pressure strongman Moammar Gadhafi into halting attacks on his countrymen.

NATO''s chief, meanwhile, said the military alliance will stay out of the conflict. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said during a visit to Ukraine that the alliance "has no plans to intervene."

France, meanwhile, has been criticized for its initial cautious response to the rash of protest movements sweeping the Arab world, and two powerful French government figures faced criticism for vacations they took in Tunisia and Egypt weeks before protesters toppled authoritarian regimes there. The French prime minister''s family getaway in Egypt was partly paid for by Hosni Mubarak''s former government.

France''s defense minister said the EU was looking at financial, trade and political sanctions, and said it was worth considering a freeze on purchasing Libyan oil.

Oil prices shot as high as $103 a barrel on Thursday amid the chaos in Libya.

British Prime Minister David Cameron warned that Gadhafi''s continued violence against protesters in Libya was "completely unacceptable."

"It must stop and, as I am absolutely clear, if it does not stop there will be consequences," Cameron said, speaking in Doha on a tour of the Middle East and Gulf.

But other EU ministers said the situation should not be over-dramatized, and that far fewer refugees than expected have arrived in Europe so far.

After a meeting of EU ambassadors Wednesday, the bloc did not announce sanctions against Libya, but EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the EU stood "ready to take further measures." Details were still being negotiated, amid concerns about getting up to 10,000 EU citizens out of Libya safely.

The United States has also said it is considering sanctions.

Italy''s foreign minister has said estimates of some 1,000 people killed in the violence in Libya were "credible", although he stressed that information about casualties was incomplete.