The Vatican has announced that it considers Libya's interim government the legitimate rulers of the country now that Moammar Gadhafi has been killed.

The Vatican press office said in a statement Thursday that Gadhafi's death ended a "long and tragic" fight to crush a "cruel and oppressive regime."

It says that for several weeks now Vatican officials have had contact with members of the National Transitional Council in Rome at the Libyan embassy to the Holy See and in New York at the U.N. General Assembly.

It says that while it hadn't gone through a formal diplomatic recognition of the former rebel movement, "the Holy See considers it the legitimate representation of the Libyan people, conforming to international law."

AP