Gates said the decision to use unmanned drones armed with missiles was made "because of the humanitarian situation" in Libya, where strongman Moamer Kadhafi's forces are battling a Western-backed insurgency.

Gates said the unmanned aircraft will be useful because of "their ability to get down lower, therefore to be able to get better visibility on particularly targets now that have started to dig themselves in into defensive positions."

He said the drones "are uniquely suited" for the mission in Libya for use on a 24-hour basis in urban areas, and to limit collateral damage.

"They give you a capability that even the A10 (anti-tank aircraft) and AC130 (ground attack aircraft) couldn't provide" in the conflict in the North African nation, he told a press briefing.

General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said two drones were to be over Libya starting Thursday but that the deployment was delayed due to poor weather.

Gates said that the deployment represents "a very limited additional role on our part," in Libya but argued that it did not mean "mission creep" for the United States.

The US military uses drones in Pakistan to kill Taliban fighters and members of Al-Qaeda.

earlier related report
Clinton rules out US military advisers in Libya
Washington (AFP) April 20, 2011 - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that the United States would not be sending military advisers to aid Libya's rebels despite decisions by France, Britain and Italy to do so.

"There is a desire to help them be more organized and we support that. We're not participating in it, but we support it," she said in a conversation moderated by Charlie Rose at the State Department and aired on PBS.

She responded "no" when asked if the United States would follow the lead of its European allies.

The White House had earlier said that US President Barack Obama backed the three countries' decisions to dispatch advisers, saying it would help the opposition battling strongman Moamer Kadhafi's forces.

"But it does not at all change the president's policy of no boots on the ground for American troops," spokesman Jay Carney said.

Many Americans, weary from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, fear that sending ground troops in to back NATO's air campaign would plunge their country into a third bloody, long-term conflict in the Muslim world.

"We want to get to a point where there is a resolution and it has to be a political resolution," Clinton said.

"But it may not be as quick as all of us would like to see it, and I think there is a lot of effort being put into the political outreach that is going to be necessary to try to resolve this."

When asked whether she thought a political solution was possible that would allow Kadhafi, who has ruled Libya for over 41 years, to remain in power, she responded: "I don't think so."

However, she also said "It's too early to tell" if the conflict has reached a stalemate.

Massive Libyan protests in February -- inspired by the revolts that toppled longtime autocrats in Egypt and Tunisia -- escalated into war when Kadhafi's troops fired on demonstrators and protesters seized several eastern towns.

The battle lines have been more or less static in recent weeks, however, as NATO air strikes have helped block Kadhafi's eastward advance but failed to give the poorly organized and lightly-armed rebels a decisive victory.

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