This thing just keeps escalating, if this doesn’t work the only option left would be troops on the ground.

PARIS (AP) — France vowed Wednesday to step up airstrikes on Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s forces and acknowledged that it has military officers already working with Libyan rebels on the ground.

Italy joined Britain in announcing their commitment of military instructors to train the rebels, who have failed to rout Moammar Gadhafi’s forces despite weeks of NATO-led airstrikes.

European powers and the Libyan opposition remained firm against sending foreign ground troops into Libya, a dangerous and politically risky step. However NATO, which is leading the U.N.-sanctioned international military operation to protect civilians, is now acknowledging that airstrikes alone cannot stop the heavy shelling of cities by Gadhafi’s forces.

Gadhafi’s forces attacked a mountain town and a besieged coastal city Wednesday, part of a drive to crush pockets of resistance in the western part of the country that is largely under the Libyan leader’s control.

“France has placed a small number of liaison officers alongside our special envoy in (the rebel stronghold) Benghazi,” French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Christine Fages said in an online briefing Wednesday.

A French diplomat said the French officers are not combat troops and are not teaching Libyan rebels weapons skills. Instead, he said, they are working on logistics and organizational help. France sent a diplomatic envoy to Benghazi earlier this month.

The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of their operation, would not say how long the officers have been in Benghazi.