Officers of the former Libyan army on Sunday defended the institution's role in the revolution which brought down Moamer Kadhafi and pledged its support for the country's new rulers.

The military "fought alongside civilian revolutionaries right from the start of the uprising in February," insisted General Ahmed al-Gotrani at a conference in the city of Benghazi on preparations for the formation of a new Libyan army.

"We backed up the revolutionaries with our experience, our advice, but also with arms and equipment," said the general, who stressed he was speaking on behalf of the whole army.

"Our army was treated with contempt and ignored by Colonel Kadhafi," Gotrani said, adding that "many soldiers were killed and sacrificed for the revolution."

He hailed the revolutionaries and dismissed charges of complicity with the Kadhafi regime from some heads of the NATO-backed volunteer brigades which ousted the veteran leader in several months of fierce fighting.

Many of them are refusing to join Libya's new military, which is to be made up mostly of senior figures from Kadhafi's army.

At the conference, an "army declaration" was drawn up committing it to "the legitimate authorities chosen by the people and today represented by the National Transitional Council."

"The national army has nothing to do with politics. It has never been opposed to the revolutionaries and never will be," the declaration reads.

The revolution which kicked off in February "belongs to the whole nation ... We will never accept any attempt to sabotage the revolution and the unity of the New Libya," it said.