Gaddafi can stay in Libya if he quits: rebel chief (Reuters)

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi is welcome to live out his retirement inside Libya as long as he gives up all power, Libya's rebel chief said in the clearest concession the rebels have so far offered.

Gaddafi has resisted all international calls for him to go and said he will fight to the end, but members of his inner circle have given indications they are ready to negotiate with the rebels, including on the Libyan leader's future.

Gaddafi is still holding on to power, five months into a rebellion against his 41-year rule and despite a NATO bombing campaign and an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for crimes against humanity.

"As a peaceful solution, we offered that he can resign and order his soldiers to withdraw from their barracks and positions, and then he can decide either to stay in Libya or abroad," rebel leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil told Reuters in an interview.

"If he desires to stay in Libya, we will determine the place and it will be under international supervision. And there will be international supervision of all his movements," said Jalil, who heads the rebels' National Transitional Council.

Speaking in his eastern Libyan stronghold of Benghazi, Abdel Jalil, Gaddafi's former justice minister, said he made the proposal about a month ago through the United Nations but had yet to receive any response from Tripoli.

He said one suggestion was that Gaddafi could spend his retirement under guard in a military barracks.

Abdel Jalil's remarks stirred an emotional reaction in Benghazi, with a small protest against any talks with Gaddafi breaking out outside a hotel, and the rebel council playing down any speculation about a widening rift among its leaders.

Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, a council vice chairman, told reporters an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against Gaddafi had now made any such proposal null and

Meanwhile Turkey, which had close economic ties to Gaddafi before the uprising, recalled its ambassador from Tripoli, cut off diplomatic ties to Gaddafi's administration and pledged $200 million in aid for the rebels on Sunday. That was in addition to a $100 million fund announced in June.

The rebels say they need more than $3 billion to cover salaries and other needs over the next six months.

"Public demand for reforms should be answered, Gaddafi should go and Libya shouldn't be divided," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in Benghazi.

He added that Turkey saw the rebel council as the people's legitimate representative. The Official Gazette in Ankara announced the recall of the ambassador from Tripoli.

DEADLOCK

The conflict in Libya is close to deadlock, with rebels on three fronts unable to make a decisive advance toward the Libyan capital and growing strains inside NATO about the cost of the operation and the lack of a military breakthrough.

Previous attempts to negotiate a peace deal have foundered, but some analysts say Gaddafi's entourage -- if perhaps not the Libyan leader himself -- may look for a way out as air strikes and sanctions narrow their options.

Gaddafi's daughter Aisha said last week her father would be prepared to cut a deal with the rebels though he would not leave the country.

But his son, Saif al-Islam, rejected calls for his father to quit Libya as the price of peace.

"To tell my father to leave the country, it's a joke. We will never surrender . We will fight. It's our country," he told French TV channel TF1.

"We have to fight for our country and you are going to be legitimate targets for us," he said of Western powers that have led air strikes against Libyan government forces.

In an address to supporters on Friday, Gaddafi urged NATO to halt its bombing campaign or risk seeing Libyan fighters descend on Europe "like a swarm of locusts or bees."

Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi -- part of a hardline camp which has clashed with Saif al-Islam on policy in the past -- said the Libyan people did not want Gaddafi to go.

"You see everyone, from small children to old men, all of them love Muammar Gaddafi, they all love him," he told Al-Arabiya television channel when asked if the Libyan leader would step down.

Libya's Jana news agency said on Sunday Gaddafi had sent a message to German Chancellor Angela Merkel to mark Germany taking over the leadership of the U.N. Security Council, without giving further details. Germany said it had no knowledge of any such a letter.

On the battlefield, both sides continued to slug it out in a fight which has seen many casualties but, for the past few weeks, only small parcels of land changing hands.

A rebel spokesman in Misrata, about 200 km (130 miles) east of Tripoli, said two rebel fighters had been killed on the outskirts of the city, where they are struggling to push back government forces and advance on the capital.

"The (pro-Gaddafi) brigades heavily bombarded Dafniyah and Bourouia last night. Two revolutionaries were martyred and 12 others wounded," the spokesman, who identified himself as Oussama, said from Misrata.

On the front closest to Tripoli, in the Western Mountains region, NATO aircraft dropped leaflets on the government-controlled town of Garyan, warning residents to stay in their homes, said a rebel spokesman called Mohammed.

The alliance last week launched air strikes on the town, which lies on the edge of rebel-held territory.

The rebel spokesman also said there was fighting with heavy weapons on Saturday between rebels and government forces around the village of Ghezaya, in the mountains near the border with Tunisia.

AFRICAN PEACE PLAN

Western governments and the rebels had hoped that African Union leaders would use a summit this weekend to join international calls for Gaddafi to quit.

But they did not do that, and also agreed that the African Union's 53 member states would not execute the international arrest warrant for Gaddafi, according to a document seen by Reuters.

While that may irk the West, it does leave open the possibility that Gaddafi could end the conflict by opting for exile somewhere in Africa.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, Erika Solomon and Isabel Coles in Dubai, Lamine Chikhi in Tripoli, Tarek Amara in Tunis and David Lewis in Malabo; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Alastair Macdonald)

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NATO warships fire on Gaddafi forces (Reuters)

MISRATA, Libya (Reuters) – NATO warships off the Libyan coast fired on government forces near the strategic town of Zlitan where they are blocking rebels from advancing on the capital, a rebel spokesman said on Wednesday.

More than 90 days into a NATO bombing campaign, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is refusing to relinquish power, leaving Western states counting on a combination of rebel advances on Tripoli and an uprising in the city itself to dislodge him.

"Last night, NATO struck from the sea at Gaddafi's forces positioned in the coastal area," a rebel spokesman inside Zlitan, who identified himself as Mabrouk, told Reuters.

"The (pro-Gaddafi) brigades are preparing for the next days. They have stepped up deployment here. They have brought several rocket-launchers. The number of checkpoints is also growing. The situation is getting more difficult."

There was no immediate confirmation from NATO that its warships had been in action off the town. Zlitan is about 140 km (90 miles) east of Tripoli and lies between the capital and the rebel-held city of Misrata.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, whose country is one of the biggest contributors to the NATO campaign, said an International Criminal Court ruling this week to issue a warrant for Gaddafi's arrest showed he was running out of options.

"Support for the regime within Libya is being eroded as we and our allies intensify the military, political and diplomatic pressure upon it," Hague told the British parliament.

"This (decision by the court) confirms that there can be no future for the Gaddafi regime leading Libya, and that any of its adherents who do not want to be associated with human rights violations should abandon it."

CONTRACT REVIEW

Before the conflict, many companies and governments courted Gaddafi to try to win lucrative contracts, especially those giving access to the country's plentiful oil.

An official with the rebel leadership said if it came to power, it would review all contracts signed under Gaddafi.

"If there appears to be proof of commissions or financial corruption we will consider ourselves free from them (the contracts)," Mahmoud Shammam, a spokesman for the rebel National Transitional Council, told reporters in Paris.

Gaddafi's officials say the NATO campaign is an act of colonial aggression aimed at stealing Libya's oil. They have also dismissed the international arrest warrants, saying the court was a tool of the West.

Libyan state television said 15 people were killed when NATO air strikes hit a vegetable market on Tuesday in the town of Tawergha, south of Misrata.

A NATO spokesman denied the report, saying the alliance had not engaged any targets in Tawergha on Tuesday.

FITFUL PROGRESS

Libya's conflict began four months ago when thousands of people rebelled against Gaddafi's rule. It has since turned into the bloodiest of the "Arab Spring" uprisings that have been sweeping through the Middle East.

For the last several weeks, advances by the rebels toward Tripoli have been fitful, a source of frustration for some Western governments who had hoped to see a swift and decisive conclusion to the conflict.

Gaddafi remains entrenched in the capital while rebel fighters are struggling to break out of their main stronghold in the east, and in the west they are hemmed into the small pockets of territory which they control.

A French military spokesman confirmed a newspaper report that Paris had bolstered rebel forces in the Western Mountains region, south-west of Tripoli, by dropping weapons and munitions to them by parachute.

Rebel fighters in the same region scored a tactical victory on Tuesday when they salvaged weapons from a government arms depot after it had been bombed by NATO.

A Reuters photographer saw a convoy of rebels drive away from the depot, about 20 km southeast of the town of Zintan, with their pick-up trucks loaded with cases of ammunition and towing anti-aircraft guns.

On Sunday, rebels in the region made their biggest breakthrough in weeks to reach the outskirts of the town of Bir al-Ghanam, about 80 km south of Tripoli.

However, Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi, speaking after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, dismissed any talk of rebel advances. "The situation in the Western Mountains is good and is under control," he said.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, Lutfi Abu-Aun in Tripoli, John Irish and Elizabeth Pineau in Paris, David Brunnstrom in Brussels, Anis Mili in Arrujban, Libya and Keith Weir in London; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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International court issues arrest warrant for Gaddafi (Reuters)

THE HAGUE/TRIPOLI (Reuters) – The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant on Monday for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and rebels trying to oust him said their forces had advanced to within 80 km (50 miles) of the capital.

The court approved warrants for Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and Libyan intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi on charges of crimes against humanity. ICC prosecutors allege they were involved in the killing of civilian protesters who rose up in February against Gaddafi's 41-year rule.

"To prevent them covering up ongoing crimes and committing new crimes, they should be arrested. This is the only way to protect civilians in Libya," said ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who had sought the arrest warrants.

The ruling is unlikely to lead to Gaddafi's arrest as long he remains in power and inside Libya, because the court does not have the power to enforce its warrants.

Celebrations erupted in the rebel-held city of Benghazi, in eastern Libya, after the ICC ruling. People honked their car horns, waved flags, fired shots into the air and flashed victory signs in the street.

The ICC decision invalidated any notion of having negotiations with Gaddafi, insurgent officials said.

Gaddafi's government denies targeting civilians, saying it took action against armed criminal gangs and al Qaeda militants. It says NATO should be prosecuted instead for killing civilians with its bombing campaign.

Anti-Gaddafi rebels, based in the Western Mountains region southwest of Tripoli, made their biggest breakthrough in weeks to reach the town of Bir al-Ghanam, where they are now fighting pro-Gaddafi forces for control, their spokesman said.

The advance took them about 30 km (18 miles) north from their previous position and closer to Tripoli, Gaddafi's biggest power base.

A senior United Nations official said the war on the ground was started to shift in favor of the insurgents, who for weeks have been bogged down in battles with Gaddafi's forces.

"While we do not have a detailed understanding of the military situation on the ground, it is clear that the initiative, although halting, is now with the opposition forces, supported at times by NATO air power," the U.N. under secretary-general for political affairs, Lynn Pascoe, told the U.N. Security Council.

BLOODY REVOLT

The rebels -- backed by NATO air support -- have been battling Gaddafi's forces since late February, when thousands of people rebelled, prompting a fierce crackdown by Gaddafi's security forces.

The revolt has turned into the bloodiest of the Arab Spring revolts against autocratic rulers rippling across the Middle East.

"We are on the southern and western outskirts of Bir al-Ghanam," Juma Ibrahim, a rebel spokesman in the nearby town of Zintan, said by telephone.

"There were battles there most of yesterday. Some of our fighters were martyred and they (government forces) also suffered casualties and we captured equipment and vehicles. It's quiet there today and the rebels are still in their positions."

A Reuters reporter in the center of Tripoli heard at least two loud explosions on Monday coming from the direction of Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah compound, repeatedly targeted by NATO.

Later, government officials took reporters to the compound. They showed them a burned-out bus which, they said, belonged to Gaddafi and had been hit by two NATO missiles.

ISOLATION

Gaddafi is the second sitting head of state to have an ICC arrest warrant issued against him. The previous one was Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

Securing arrests, however, has proven difficult for the ICC, which has no police force and relies on member states to enforce arrest orders. Some states have refused to arrest Bashir, who is still able to travel to friendly states.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the court's ruling reinforced the reasons for the alliance's bombing campaign and deepened Gaddafi's isolation.

"(Gaddafi) and his henchmen need to realize that time is rapidly running out for them," Rasmussen said in a statement.

"NATO is more determined than ever to keep up the pressure until all attacks on civilians have ended, until all regime forces have returned to their bases and until there is unhindered access to humanitarian aid."

Reading out the ruling at the court in The Hague, presiding judge Sanji Mmasenono Monageng said Gaddafi has "absolute, ultimate and unquestioned control" over Libya's state apparatus and security forces.

She said both Gaddafi and Saif al-Islam "conceived and orchestrated a plan to deter and quell by all means the civilian demonstrations" against the regime and that al-Senussi used his position of command to have attacks carried out.

Gaddafi's administration made no immediate comment on the ICC ruling. Speaking on Sunday, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said the court was guilty of double standards and was following a Western political agenda.

"The ICC has no legitimacy whatsoever," Ibrahim told reporters.

In Benghazi, in eastern Libya, the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) said the arrest warrants rendered any attempt at peace talks with Gaddafi pointless.

"After this warrant, it is all irrelevant. We cannot negotiate with war criminals," NTC spokesman Jalal al-Galal told Reuters. "The world has confirmed what we have been saying all along. He's a war criminal, and he should be tried for it."

"We are extremely happy that the whole world has united in prosecuting Gaddafi for the crimes he has committed," Galal said. "The people feel vindicated by such a response."

Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the council chairman, urged Gaddafi's aides and supporters to abandon him, saying those who help him escape justice will end up sharing his punishment. "It is time to abandon Gaddafi to spare themselves," he added.

In neighboring Tunisia, three Libyan ministers, including the foreign minister, were holding talks with "foreign parties," the Tunisian state news agency reported, in a possible sign some in Gaddafi's circle were seeking a settlement.

(Additional reporting by Joseph Nasr in Berlin, Tarek Amara in Tunis, Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, Maria Golovnina in Benghazi, Sherine El Madany in Cairo, Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations and David Brunnstrom in Brussels; writing by Christian Lowe; editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Gaddafi revives offer of vote to end Libya conflict (Reuters)

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – The Libyan government on Sunday renewed its offer to hold a vote on whether Muammar Gaddafi should stay in power, a proposal unlikely to interest Gaddafi's opponents but which could widen differences inside NATO.

Pressure is growing from some quarters within the alliance to find a political solution, three months into a military campaign which is costing NATO members billions of dollars, has killed civilians, and has so far failed to topple Gaddafi.

Moussa Ibrahim, a spokesman for Gaddafi's administration, told reporters in Tripoli the government was proposing a period of national dialogue and an election overseen by the United Nations and the African Union.

"If the Libyan people decide Gaddafi should leave he will leave. If the people decide he should stay he will stay," Ibrahim said.

But he said Gaddafi -- who has run the oil-producing country since taking over in a military coup in 1969 -- would not go into exile whatever happened. "Gaddafi is not leaving anywhere, he is staying in this country," Ibrahim said.

The idea of holding an election was first raised earlier this month by one of Gaddafi's sons, Saif al-Islam.

The proposal lost momentum when Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi appeared to dismiss it. At the time, it was also rejected by anti-Gaddafi rebels in the east of Libya, and by Washington.

Many analysts say Gaddafi and his family have no intention of relinquishing power. Instead, they say, the Libyan leader is holding out the possibility of a deal to try to widen cracks that have been emerging in the alliance ranged against him.

The election proposal could find a more receptive audience this time around, especially after a NATO bomb landed on a house in Tripoli on June 19, killing several civilians.

After that incident, alliance-member Italy said it wanted a political settlement, and also said that the civilian casualties threaten NATO's credibility.

SOCCER DEFECTIONS

Libyan government forces have been fighting rebels, backed by NATO air power, since February 17, when thousands of people rose up in a rebellion against his rule.

The revolt has turned into the bloodiest of the Arab Spring uprisings sweeping the Middle East.

Rebels now control the eastern third of the country, and some enclaves in the West. They have been unable though to break through to the capital, leaving Western powers banking on an uprising in Tripoli to overthrow Gaddafi.

The Libyan leader suffered a propaganda defeat when four members of the national soccer team and 13 other football figures defected to the rebels, the rebel council said.

Libyans are passionate about the sport and the national team was closely aligned with Gaddafi's rule. At one point his son, Saadi, played in the side.

Asked about the defections, government spokesman Ibrahim said: "The Libyan football team is full and functioning and performing all of its duties inside and outside Libya."

HUMANITARIAN SWAP

A momentary thaw in the fighting allowed the Red Cross to reunite people caught on the wrong side of the conflict with their families.

A ship, the Ionis, arrived in Tripoli's port on Sunday carrying 106 people from the main rebel stronghold in Benghazi. Many of the passengers were elderly, and families with small children.

A crowd of a few dozen people waited for the ship to dock, among them Mohammed Al-Gimzi. "I love Muammar Gaddafi very much," he said.

When Al-Gimzi's sister disembarked from the ship, he rushed to greet her and the two stood weeping with their heads on each other's shoulders. "I am very happy to see my sister again," he said, tears running down his face.

As part of the same exchange, a ship carried around 300 people from Tripoli to Benghazi on Friday. They included dozens of rebel supporters who had been detained.

"This is purely humanitarian, for families to meet with their loved ones and to be able to travel," Robin Waudo, a spokesman in Tripoli for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said on Sunday.

(Additional reporting by Mussab Al-Khairalla in Tripoli and Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Ralph Boulton)

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Libyan soccer stars join rebels in blow to Gaddafi (Reuters)

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) – Four members of Libya's national soccer team and 13 other football figures have defected to rebels in a blow to Muammar Gaddafi's government, the rebel authority in eastern Libya said on Saturday.

Gaddafi has faced a string of defections by officers and diplomats but has resisted efforts by rebels backed by a NATO bombing campaign to dislodge him after four decades in power.

Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, vice chairman of the rebel council, said the footballers had been in touch with the insurgent leadership in Benghazi and were staying in neighbouring Tunisia.

"It's a direct reflection of opinions and feelings of all people across Libya. These 17 members were on their way to Mali when they declared their defection," he said.

"This is not just symbolic but it's also very important. It (shows) that whenever a person is able to set themselves free and announce their defection, they do so. There are many of those who are not able to do that."

National goalkeeper Juma Gtat and Adel bin Issa, the coach of Tripoli's top club al-Ahly, announced the defections in the rebel-held Nafusa Mountains in western Libya, the BBC reported.

"I am telling Colonel Gaddafi to leave us alone and allow us to create a free Libya," it quoted Gtat as saying at a hotel in the town of Jadu. "In fact I wish he would leave this life altogether."

Bin Issa told the BBC he had chosen to come to the Western Mountains "to send a message that Libya should be unified and free," adding: "I hope to wake up one morning to find that Gaddafi is no longer there."

(Reporting by Maria Golovnina in Benghazi and Alistair Lyon in London)

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Libyan rebels battle to close in Gaddafi (Reuters)

DAFNIYAH, Libya (Reuters) – Libya's rebels have traded heavy artillery fire with Muammar Gaddafi's forces near the western city of Zlitan as they tried to take government-held territory east of the capital Tripoli.

The city, 160 km (100 miles) from Tripoli, is the next major town on the Mediterranean coastal road to the capital from the rebel stronghold of Misrata. Capturing it would greatly advance the rebels' strategy of cutting off the capital from all sides.

A Reuters team in Dafniya, on the outskirts of Misrata, said rebels fired artillery and rocket launchers. Rebels said they aimed to hit Libyan tanks and munitions in Naimah, near Zlitan, but inexperience and indiscipline has plagued their campaign.

"We had a strategy to finish everything today, but some of the fighters think it's a game. They shot when they weren't supposed to shoot," a rebel unit commander called Mohammed Ali told Reuters, after taking cover from a mortar barrage.

NATO planes resumed bombardments of Tripoli on Friday with six explosions sending columns of black smoke into the sky.

Rebel advances toward Tripoli have been slow, and weeks of NATO strikes pounding Gaddafi's compound and other targets have failed to bring an end to his 41-year-old rule.

Rebels are fighting on two other fronts: in the east around the oil town of Brega and in the Western Mountains southwest of Tripoli. They have made important gains in the past few weeks, but remain far from seizing their ultimate prize.

NATO SEES "POSITIVE SIGNS"

Gaddafi vowed to defeat NATO.

"This is the first time they are facing an armed nation of millions. The alliance will be defeated," he said in an audio speech on Libyan TV on Friday. "We are in our country and we are determined to stay and defend it."

In Misrata, rebel spokesman Ahmed Hassan said 10 civilians had been killed and another 40 wounded when Gaddafi's forces shelled the city on Friday, a claim which could not be verified.

The rebels have said they will not attack Zlitan because of tribal sensitivities, but are recruiting fighters from the town and waiting for the residents to rise up against Gaddafi.

NATO military spokesman Wing Commander Mike Bracken said in a briefing that west of Misrata there were "some positive signs that civilians are unifying against the Gaddafi regime" and that "for the time being pro-Gaddafi forces appear unable to strongly counter the anti-Gaddafi forces' incremental advances."

Another NATO bombardment struck in the region of Gzayha, on the Tunisian border, resident Mohamed Nagez said.

APPEAL TO U.N.

Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi told a late night news conference Libya would appeal to the U.N. security council to stop the NATO bombing.

He said one airstrike had hit the Al Fateh University.

"It has become clear to us that NATO has moved on to deliberately target civilian buildings. Who is killing civilians now? It is indeed NATO," he said.

He planned to call U.N. secretary general Ban ki-Moon early on Saturday to call for an extraordinary session to investigate.

The rebellion erupted four months ago in the eastern city of Benghazi. NATO intervention has been going on for nearly 13 weeks, and strains are beginning to show within the alliance.

Juma Ibrahim, a rebel spokesman in the Western Mountains town of Zintan, said Gaddafi loyalists were massing in Gharyan, about 120 km (90 miles) southwest of Tripoli -- and besieging the world heritage-listed old city of Ghadames, some 600 km southwest of the capital on the Tunisia and Algerian borders.

"(They) ... have destroyed some Islamic historic ruins ... palaces and forts located in the city's old quarter," he said.

Accounts from Ghadames could not be independently verified.

(Additional Reporting by Nick Carey in Tripoli, Nick Vincour in Paris, David Brunnstrom in Brussels, Maria Golovnina in Benghazi, Joseph Nasr in Berlin; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Jon Hemming)

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Turkey says offered Gaddafi "guarantee" to quit Libya (Reuters)

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday his country had offered a "guarantee" to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi if he left Libya, but said Ankara had received no answer.

"Gaddafi has no way out but to leave Libya, through the guarantees given to him, it seems," Erdogan told NTV broadcaster in an interview.

"We ourselves have offered him this guarantee, via the representatives we've sent. We told him we would help him to be sent wherever he wanted to be sent. We would discuss the issue with our allies, according to the response we receive. Unfortunately we still haven't got a response from Gaddafi."

Erdogan, whose country is a member of NATO, did not specify what kind of guarantee his country had offered to Gaddafi.

Muslim Turkey had sizeable trade and commercial ties with Gaddafi's Libya, and evacuated more than 20,000 citizens working there as violence engulfed the North African desert nation.

Since the uprising against Gaddafi's rule began in February, Erdogan has distanced himself from the Libyan leader. Ankara has called on Gaddafi several times to order a ceasefire and to quit in order to allow a transition of power.

In the interview, Erdogan expressed frustration at what he called Gaddafi's stalling tactics.

"I have contacted him six or seven times. I sent our special representatives, but we always faced stalling tactics. They tell us they want a cease fire, we tell them to take a step, but the next day you find out that some places were bombed."

"We're asking them 'what are you doing' and they tell us they fired back because they were fired at. There's nothing like that. We were closely watching at that time."

(Reporting by Ece Toksabay)

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Gaddafi defiant as NATO intensifies Tripoli strikes (Reuters)

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Loud explosions rocked Tripoli early on Wednesday as NATO kept up its heaviest bombing of the Libyan capital since air strikes began in March, but Muammar Gaddafi vowed to fight to the end.

Attacks continued through Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning with warplanes hitting the city several times an hour. The Libyan leader's government said bombs had killed 31 people.

Saying planes were overhead and bombs were falling around him, Gaddafi spoke defiantly after strikes on his Bab al-Aziziya compound.

"We only have one choice: we will stay in our land dead or alive," he said in a fiery audio address on state television.

It later showed images of what it said was a meeting between Gaddafi and tribal leaders on Tuesday.

President Barack Obama said in Washington there was significant progress in the operation and it was "just a matter of time before Gaddafi goes".

At least 31 people were killed in 60 strikes on Tripoli, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told reporters. His account could not be independently verified.

"How could the world sleep tonight knowing that armies of such evil are willingly and knowingly attacking a peaceful capital with 60 rockets and killing people ... while there is a way out of this. To sit down, talk and negotiate," Ibrahim said.

A British defense official said several operations carried out by fighter aircraft had targeted Gaddafi's secret police headquarters and a military installation on Tripoli's southwestern outskirts.

Gaddafi's troops and the rebels have been deadlocked for weeks, with neither side able to hold territory on a road between Ajdabiyah in the east, which Gaddafi's forces shelled on Monday, and the Gaddafi-held oil town of Brega further west.

DIPLOMATIC MOVES

Rebels control the east of Libya, the western city of Misrata and the range of mountains near the border with Tunisia. They have been unable to advance on the capital against Gaddafi's better-equipped fighters.

Gaddafi's forces pulled back to high ground in the Western Mountains outside Yafran, 130 km (80 miles) southwest of Tripoli. The rebels broke a long government siege of the town on Monday.

But a rebel commander in Zintan, in the same region, said Gaddafi's forces were massing on Tuesday in their biggest numbers in the area since the start of the conflict.

Diplomatic overtures were being made to the rebels by world powers, including Russia and China, despite their misgivings about interference in Libya's affairs.

A Russian special envoy for Africa said in the rebel capital of Benghazi on Tuesday that Gaddafi could no longer represent Libya and that Russia was ready to help in any way possible.

In Beijing, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said an Egypt-based Chinese diplomat had visited Benghazi for talks with the rebel-led National Transitional Council.

The Libya contact group of Western and Arab countries agreed in May to provide millions of dollars in non-military aid to help the rebels keep services and the economy running.

They meet on Thursday in the United Arab Emirates to discuss rebel plans and financing for them.

Al-Saedi Gaddafi, one of Gaddafi's sons, said in comments broadcast on state television that the fighting in Libya was an attempt by Islamists to seize power.

"(Muslim) Brotherhood members, Jihadists and Takfiris (other Islamist fundamentalists) should not dream to return to Libya to take charge of it," he said.

"This is a battle of principles. The leader (Muammar Gaddafi) and the Libyan people have nothing to do with it," he said in remarks by telephone to Jamahiriya television.

(Writing by John Irish; editing by Michael Roddy)

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NATO helicopters raise pressure on Gaddafi (Reuters)

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – British and French attack helicopters struck inside Libya for the first time overnight on Saturday, hitting targets in the oil port of Brega as NATO forces stepped up their air war against Muammar Gaddafi.

Aircraft of the NATO-led alliance also hit targets in Tripoli, where at least six powerful explosions were heard. A Reuters correspondent in the Libyan capital said aircraft could be heard overhead at the time of the blasts, before sunset.

It was not immediately clear which targets were hit.

"As long as Gaddafi continues to abuse his people, we will continue and intensify our efforts to stop him from doing so," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said at a news conference in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in eastern Libya.

Speaking in Benghazi shortly before Hague's arrival, the head of the rebel council Mustafa Abdel Jalil welcomed NATO's deployment of helicopters.

"We welcome any measures that would expedite the departure of Gaddafi and his regime," he told reporters in Benghazi, where Hague later arrived for talks with council members.

Hague visited the square next to Benghazi's court house where people greeted him by waving the victory sign and shouting: "Libya free!" and "Gaddafi go away!"

A NATO-led military alliance extended its mission to protect civilians in Libya for a further 90 days this week, and France said it was stepping up military pressure as well as working with those close to Gaddafi to try to persuade him to quit.

"This was the first operational mission flown by British Army Apaches at sea," British Defense Secretary Liam Fox said.

"The additional capabilities now being employed by NATO further reinforce the UK's enduring commitment and NATO's determination to ... ensure that the people of Libya are free to determine their own future."

Military analysts say attack helicopters will allow more precise strikes against pro-Gaddafi forces hiding in built-up areas than the high-flying jets used so far, while reducing the risk of civilian casualties.

But given the vulnerability of helicopters to ground fire, their deployment also increases the risk of Western forces suffering their first casualties of the campaign.

WESTERN MOUNTAINS TOWNS SHELLED

Critics of the war have warned of "mission creep" but NATO has said the use of helicopters would not presage the deployment of ground troops, which Western nations have ruled out.

Now in its fourth month, the Libyan conflict is deadlocked, with rebels unable to break out of their strongholds and advance toward Tripoli, where Gaddafi appears to be entrenched.

Rebels control the east of Libya around Benghazi and the Western Mountains stretching from the town of Zintan, 150 km (95 miles) south of Tripoli, toward the border with Tunisia.

In a speech at NATO's Libya command base in the Italian city of Naples, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden praised U.S. troops for taking part in military operations that he said had stopped a humanitarian disaster in the North African country.

He reiterated the official U.S. government stance that Gaddafi must step down.

Rebel fighters repelled an attack by Gaddafi's forces against one of their checkpoints on the eastern edges of the rebel-held city of Misrata on Saturday, a Reuters journalist there said. One rebel was killed and another was wounded in the clashes, medical workers said.

Gaddafi's forces also shelled Nalut and Zintan, rebel spokesmen said by phone from the rebel-held Western Mountains towns. At least 10 people were wounded in Nalut.

NATO's helicopter attacks struck military targets around the eastern town of Brega, location of an oil export terminal.

Rebel forces swept west through Brega early in the uprising before retreating from near Gaddafi's home town of Sirte in late March. Gaddafi's forces have since dug in around the oil town.

"The Apaches were tasked with precision strikes against a regime radar installation and a military checkpoint, both located around Brega," said Major-General Nick Pope, the Chief of the Defense Staff's Strategic Communications Officer.

"In the same area, Royal Air Force ground attack aircraft destroyed another military installation, whilst a separate RAF mission successfully attacked two ammunition bunkers at the large Waddan depot in central Libya."

In a fresh diplomatic setback for Gaddafi on Friday, China said it had made its first confirmed contact with Libyan rebels this week, following a spate of defections by high-profile figures including senior oil official and former prime minister Shokri Ghanem.

The rebels and NATO have made Gaddafi's departure a condition of any ceasefire, but he emphatically told visiting South African President Jacob Zuma this week he would not leave Libya.

The United Nations has said government-held parts of Libya are running out of food and the capital Tripoli this week saw the first big protest in months against Gaddafi's 41-year rule.

Gaddafi says the rebels are armed criminals and al Qaeda militants, and has called the NATO intervention an act of colonial aggression designed to grab Libya's plentiful oil.

(Additional reporting by Zohra Bensemra in Misrata, Abdelaziz Boumzar in Bir Ayyad, Libya, Gavin Jones in Italy, John Irish in Paris, Christina Fincher in London, Sherine El Madany in Benghazi, David Brunnstrom in Brussels and Joseph Nasr in Rabat; writing by Lin Noueihed and Joseph Nasr; editing by Andrew Roche)

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Libya's Gaddafi: I will not leave my country (Reuters)

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi is emphatic he will not leave Libya, South African President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday after talks with the Libyan leader that left prospects for a negotiated end to the conflict looking dim.

But new questions emerged over how long Gaddafi could hold on after a senior United Nations aid official said shortages of food and medicine in areas of Libya controlled by Gaddafi amounted to a "time bomb."

Within hours of Zuma's departure from Tripoli late on Monday, Libyan television reported that NATO aircraft had resumed attacks, striking what it called civilian and military sites in Tripoli and Tajoura, just east of the capital.

Zuma was in Tripoli to try to revive an African "roadmap" for ending the conflict, which started in February with an uprising against Gaddafi and has since turned into a war with thousands of people killed.

The talks produced no breakthrough, with Gaddafi's refusal to quit -- a condition the rebels and NATO have set as a pre-condition for any ceasefire -- still the sticking point.

"Col. Gaddafi called for an end to the bombings to enable a Libyan dialogue," Zuma's office said in a statement. "He emphasized that he was not prepared to leave his country, despite the difficulties."

Zuma also said Gaddafi's personal safety "is a concern" -- a reference to NATO strikes which have repeatedly hit the Libyan leader's Bab al-Aziziyah compound and other locations used by the Libyan leader and his family.

Speaking in the main rebel stronghold of Benghazi where he was opening a consulate, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said he had pledged an aid package for the rebels worth hundreds of millions of euros.

"I think the Gaddafi regime is over and I firmly believe that it is over for a simple reason: we are talking about a person whose closest friends are defecting. He lost his legitimacy in Libya," Frattini said.

Now in its fourth month, Libya's conflict is deadlocked on the ground, with anti-Gaddafi rebels unable to break out of their strongholds and advance toward Tripoli, where Gaddafi appears to be firmly entrenched.

Rebels control the east of Libya around the city of Benghazi, Libya's third-biggest city Misrata, and a mountain range stretching from the town of Zintan, 150 km (95 miles) south of Tripoli, toward the border with Tunisia.

TIME BOMB

Western powers have said they expect Gaddafi will be forced out by a process of attrition as air strikes, defections from his entourage and shortages take their toll.

Panos Moumtzis, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Libya, told Reuters in Tripoli that some food stocks in areas under Gaddafi's control were likely to last only weeks.

"I don't think there's any famine, malnutrition. But the longer the conflict lasts the more the food stocks supplies are going to be depleted, and it's a matter of weeks before the country reaches a critical situation," Moumtzis said in an interview.

"The food and the medical supplies is a little bit like a time bomb. At the moment it's under control and it's ok. But if this goes on for quite some time, this will become a major issue," he said.

Gaddafi says his forces are fighting armed criminal gangs and al Qaeda militants, and has described the NATO intervention as an act of colonial aggression aimed at grabbing Libya's plentiful oil reserves.

Libyan television broadcast footage of Gaddafi welcoming Zuma, his first public appearance since May 11. Speculation had been swirling in the past few weeks that Gaddafi was injured in a NATO strike or had fled Tripoli.

MISRATA FIGHTING

A Reuters photographer in Misrata said there was heavy fighting in the suburb of Dafniyah, in the west of the city, where the front line is now located after rebel fighters drove pro-Gaddafi forces out of the city.

Speaking from a field hospital near the front line, she said 14 rebel fighters had been injured so far on Tuesday, one of them seriously.

"Gaddafi's forces are firing Grad rockets," she said. "The rebels tried to advance, and Gaddafi's forces pushed back."

Rebel fighters, out of their familiar urban battleground and now in open ground, were being outgunned, one of their spokesmen said.

"The situation is getting more difficult for the revolutionaries because fighting is going on in open places. They do not have the same heavy weapons as the (pro-Gaddafi) brigades," the spokesman, Abdelsalam, said from Misrata.

There were reports too of clashes between rebels and forces loyal to Gaddafi in the Western mountains.

A rebel spokesman in the town of Zintan told Reuters by telephone: "Fighting took place last night in (the village of) Rayayna, east of Zintan ... It continued until the early hours of this morning. Both sides used mortars."

"The revolutionaries do not want to intensify attacks in the area for fear of harming civilians still living there," said the spokesman, called Abdulrahman.

He urged NATO to take a more active role by targeting pro-Gaddafi forces from the air.

Using a makeshift system of citizens' band radios and Skype, local rebels have been passing on the positions of government forces to NATO via the rebel headquarters in Benghazi, eastern Libya.

"NATO's performance is still very weak. Its operations are very slow despite the fact that the local (rebel) military council has provided it with all necessary information about the brigades' positions," said Abdulrahman.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, Zohra Bensemra in Misrata, Matt Robinson in Zintan, Sherine El Madany in Benghazi, Libya, and Marius Bosch in Johannesburg; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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Medvedev's Improbable Mission: Mediating Peace with Gaddafi (Time.com)

On Thursday, as NATO war planes prepared fresh strikes against the compound of Muammar Gaddafi, his prime minister, Baghdadi al-Mahmudi, put in an urgent call to Moscow. After months of civil war, he said, Gaddafi was ready to negotiate a ceasefire and he needed Russia to mediate the talks. That same day in the French resort town of Deauville, the French and U.S. presidents, who have been leading the bombing raids against Gaddafi, reportedly came to their Russian counterpart with a similar plea: Help us convince Gaddafi to leave so that a ceasefire can move forward. All the attention had to be flattering, and perhaps a little confusing, for Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. How is it that he has suddenly been pushed into the driver's seat in resolving the Libyan crisis? And more importantly, can he handle the job?

The answer, at best, is maybe. But of all the major powers in the world, Russia is the only one that has carved out a neutral position on Libya, while also taking care to stay involved. In March, it abstained from voting on the United Nations Security Council resolution that allowed the bombing of Libya; and over the past two weeks, Russia has played host to delegations from both the pro- and anti-Gaddafi forces. Neither of those talks in Moscow made much headway, but they did allow Russia to open up a dialogue with both sides - a feat that no one in the West can claim. (See photos of the battle for Libya.)

On May 26, when the leaders of the Group of Eight gathered in France for their annual summit, President Barack Obama reportedly brought up Russia's balancing act during his one-on-one with Medvedev. "After an admission that the conflict is dragging on and the West has severed all contacts with Gaddafi and his circle, it was proposed that Russia step in as a mediator in talks with the Libyan leader," a Russian diplomatic source who attended the meeting told the leading Russian daily Kommersant. The proposed mission, according to the diplomat, would be convincing Gaddafi that the only way he will survive the conflict is by giving up power and leaving Libya for any country he deems safe.

Russia's initial response seems to have been incredulity. "We noted that the solution to the Libya problem that [the Americans] were suggesting does not seem realistic," said the diplomatic source. "We asked them, Do you really believe Gaddafi can be convinced to give everything up?" It was a fair point. The besieged Colonel's rants against the West have evidenced no desire to capitulate.

But the phone call that Libyan Prime Minister Mahmudi made to Moscow on Thursday showed a new readiness, even a desperation, to negotiate. For the first time since the war began, Mahmudi said, in his conversation with the Russian foreign minister, that Gaddafi's regime was ready for unconditional talks with the rebels. After taking a day to think about the offer to mediate the talks, Russia also seemed to change its tone. On Friday, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov became the first Russian official to agree with the West that Gaddafi must give up power, and confirmed that Moscow is ready to broker a deal. "Colonel Gaddafi has deprived himself of legitimacy with his actions," Ryabkov told reporters in Deauville. "We should help him leave." (See "Medvedev's Challenge to Putin: Oh, Never Mind.")

So far, however, Gaddafi's representatives have only offered to take part in a transition of power in Libya that would include constitutional reforms. That has not suited the rebels and their backers in the West, who insist that Gaddafi relinquish power and go into exile unconditionally. So negotiating a deal between them will not be easy, and may require more statecraft than President Medvedev can muster.

In March, his stance on Libya was already undermined by his senior partner, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who second-guessed Medvedev's decision not to veto the U.N. resolution against Gaddafi. Putin called the document "defective and flawed," and Western leaders were left to wonder where Russia really stood on the Libya question.

So Medvedev's sudden eagerness to mediate the conflict looks like a hasty attempt to claw back some foreign policy clout, says Matthew Rojansky, deputy head of the Russia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. "But it's very difficult to picture Russia steering this ship safely to harbor," Rojansky says. "Gaddafi doesn't have a lot of incentives at this point, and Russia doesn't have a lot of leverage to convince him." (See "Gaddafi's Last Stand.")

It's unclear, for instance, how Russia can guarantee that Gaddafi will not end up at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, whose top prosecutor said this month that he wants the Colonel arrested for crimes against humanity. On this front, the precedent set in 1999 is not likely to help. That was when the Russian envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin, a gifted negotiator, convinced Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosovic to step down in the face of a NATO bombing campaign. When those talks succeeded, Milosevic was put on trial for war crimes in the Hague, where he died in a prison cell in 2006.

On Friday, Medvedev did little to soothe such concerns at the G8's final press conference, where some of his remarks seemed confused. "When it comes to the departure of the current leader of the Libyan revolution, by which I mean, of course, Gaddafi, then in my opinion, I don't think it makes much difference," Medvedev said. To start the peace negotiations, he said he is dispatching Senator Mikhail Margelov, who has been the President's special envoy in Africa for all of nine weeks but, to his credit, speaks Arabic. The envoy's main objective, Medvedev added, would be to hold talks with the rebels in Benghazi and, "if there is a chance," he may visit Tripoli, too.

For its part, the White House said on Friday that it would stay in close touch with Russia as it pursues its conversations the Libyans. They'd better also wish the Russians luck. The U.S. exit strategy out of a potentially protracted war in Libya now seems to wind through Moscow.

See pictures of the rule of Colonel Gaddafi.

See TIME's special report: "The Middle East in Revolt."

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Obama warns Gaddafi of "no let up" (Reuters)

LONDON/TRIPOLI (Reuters) – President Barack Obama warned Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Wednesday there would be 'no let up' in pressure on him to go, following a second successive night of heavy NATO bombing in Tripoli.

Six loud explosions rocked Tripoli late on Tuesday within 10 minutes, following powerful strikes 24 hours earlier, including one on Gaddafi's compound that Libyan officials said killed 19 people.

Obama told a London news conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron he could not predict when Gaddafi, who is fighting a three-month-old insurgency, might be forced to go.

"I absolutely agree that given the progress that has been made over the last several weeks that Gaddafi and his regime need to understand that there will not be a let-up in the pressure that we are applying."

"We have built enough momentum that as long as we sustain the course that we are on that he is ultimately going to step down," he said. "Ultimately this is going to be a slow, steady process in which we are able to wear down the regime."

Fighting between Gaddafi's forces and rebels has reached a stalemate, despite two months of NATO aerial support under a U.N. mandate intended to protect civilians. Gaddafi denies his troops target civilians and says rebels are criminals, religious extremists and members of al Qaeda.

Strikes drove back Gaddafi forces shortly after he pledged "no pity, no mercy" to rebels in their stronghold of Benghazi. Rebels have since proved unable to achieve any breakthrough against better-trained and equipped government troops.

Cameron echoed Obama's calls for the departure of Gaddafi, who denies targeting civilians and portrays the disparate rebel groups as religious extremists, mercenaries and criminals serving Western schemes to seize Libya's oil.

"I believe we should be turning up that pressure and on Britain's part we will be looking at all the options of turning up that pressure," he said.

Such pressure will not include NATO troops, Obama said.

"We cannot put boots in the ground in Libya," he said. "There are going to be some inherent limitations to our air strikes in Libya."

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Tuesday the NATO bombing should achieve its objectives within months.

France said this week it would deploy attack helicopters to ensure more precise attacks against Gaddafi forces embedded among the civilian population of Libyan cities. Britain said on Tuesday it was considering doing the same.

HEAVY BOMBING IN LIBYA

In the second day of heavy NATO bombing of Tripoli, the alliance hit a vehicle storage bunker, a missile storage and maintenance site and a command- and-control site on the outskirts of Tripoli, a NATO official said. Government targets around the Western rebel outpost of Misrata had also been hit.

Libyan news agency Jana says NATO hit a telecommunications station in Zlitan overnight, causing "material and human casualties losses" west of Misrata.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague dismissed fears that Western states were being drawn into an Iraq-style conflict.

"It's very different from Iraq because of course in the case of Iraq there were very large numbers of ground forces deployed from Western nations," Hague told BBC Radio.

Diplomatic activity is intensifying. G8 world powers will discuss ways to break the impasse this week, with some expecting Russia to propose a mediation plan to the meeting.

South African President Jacob Zuma announced he would visit Tripoli next week for talks with Gaddafi in his capacity as a member of the African Union high-level panel for the resolution of the conflict in Libya,.

Zuma headed an African Union mission to Tripoli in April but the bid to halt the civil war collapsed within hours. The AU does not have a good track record in brokering peace deals, having failed recently to end conflicts or disputes in Somalia, Madagascar and Ivory Coast.

Unlike France, Italy and Qatar, the United States has not established formal diplomatic ties with the rebels. Jordan said on Tuesday it recognized the rebel council as a legitimate representative of Libya's people and planned to open an office in Benghazi.

The United States bolstered the credentials of the Benghazi-based rebel National Transitional Council as a potential government-in-waiting on Tuesday when a U.S. envoy invited it to set up a representative office in Washington.

(Reporting by Joseph Logan in Tripoli, David Brunnstrom in Brussels, Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, Mohammed Abbas in Misrata, Sherine El Madany in Benghazi, Nick Vinocur in Paris; writing by Ralph Boulton; editing by Alison Williams)

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War crimes prosecutor targets Gaddafi and allies (Reuters)

THE HAGUE/TRIPOLI (Reuters) – The world's top war crimes prosecutor sought an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, accusing him of killing protesters who want an end to end his four-decade rule.

International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo also asked judges, who must now see if there is enough evidence to issue warrants, for the arrest of Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam and his spy chief brother-in-law Abdullah al-Senussi.

In the uprising, civilians were attacked at home, protests were suppressed using live ammunition, heavy artillery was used against funeral processions and snipers deployed to kill people leaving mosques after prayers, the prosecutor said on Monday.

"We have strong evidence, so strong evidence," Moreno-Ocampo said, adding: "We are almost ready for trial ... Gaddafi ruled Libya through fear and Libyans are losing that fear now."

The prosecutor's office had received calls from senior officials in the Gaddafi government in the past week to provide information. Prosecutors spoke with eyewitnesses to attacks and assessed evidence from 1,200 documents, plus videos and photos.

In central Tripoli, NATO airstrikes hit two buildings on Tuesday, including one which a Libyan spokesman said contained files detailing corruption cases against government officials who had defected to the rebels.

Officials summoned reporters after the attack in the early hours to visit the two damaged buildings which they said housed internal security forces and Libya's anti-corruption agency. One building was in flames.

Government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said the anti-graft agency had held files on former supporters of Muammar Gaddafi who had joined the rebels. "We believe that NATO has been misled to destroy files on their corruption cases," he said.

There was no immediate reaction to Ibrahim's comments from the rebel leadership, based in the eastern city of Benghazi. Ambulances were at the scene of the buildings on either side of a street although there was no sign of any casualties.

OIL CHIEF

Arab television channels reported late on Monday that Shokri Ghanem, chairman of Libya's National Oil Corporation, had defected. It was not possible to verify the reports immediately and Libyan officials in Tripoli were not available for comment.

Al Arabiya television quoted sources in the rebel Transitional National Council as saying that Ghanem had defected and joined rebel ranks. Al Jazeera reported he had defected and left Libya, without giving details.

Thousands have been killed in the conflict in the North African state, the bloodiest of the revolts which have convulsed the region in what has been called the "Arab Spring."

NATO, which has been hitting targets in Libya for nearly two months, appeared to step up its bombing campaign on Monday with strikes in several towns and cities including Tripoli, according to Libyan state television and rebels.

On the diplomatic front, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said the United Nations was working on the removal of Gaddafi to exile to make way for a new government, and a Libyan government delegation was expected in Moscow on Tuesday.

Libyan officials have denied killing civilians, saying instead they were forced to take action against criminal armed gangs and al Qaeda militants. They say the NATO bombing campaign is an act of colonial aggression aimed at grabbing Libya's oil.

PERSECUTION, TORTURE

Moreno-Ocampo said persecution was still taking place in areas under Gaddafi's control with forces arresting, imprisoning and torturing alleged dissidents. Some had disappeared.

Prosecutors are also investigating reports of mass rapes, war crimes committed by different parties and attacks against sub-Saharan Africans wrongly seen as mercenaries once the Libyan situation developed into an armed conflict.

Libyan officials have already denounced the ICC, saying the court is a creation of the West for prosecuting African leaders. The Libyan rebel council has welcomed the move.

State-run television in Libya reported there were NATO strikes on Tripoli, the town of Zawiyah about 50 km (30 miles) west of the capital, the western Tripoli suburb of Tajoura, and on the town of Zuara, 120 km west of Tripoli on Monday.

In each case strikes hit military and civilian targets and caused "material and human losses," it said.

A rebel spokesman in the town of Zintan, southwest of Tripoli, told Reuters by telephone that NATO had been hitting government weapons depots about 30 km from the town.

(Reporting by Joseph Nasr in Berlin, Steve Gutterman in Moscow, Peter Apps in London, David Brunnstrom in Brussels, Sami Aboudi in Cairo; Writing by Peter Millership and Sylvia Westall; editing by David Stamp)

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Prosecutor seeks Gaddafi arrest over protest deaths (Reuters)

THE HAGUE (Reuters) – An international prosecutor on Monday sought an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi accusing him of committing crimes against humanity by killing protesters during an uprising against his 41-year rule.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, International Criminal Court prosecutor, also asked judges, who now need to see if there is enough evidence to issue warrants, for the arrest of Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam and his spy chief Abdullah al-Senussi.

Moreno-Ocampo signaled his action earlier this month when he said he would seek three arrests for the "pre-determined" killing of protesters in Libya after the U.N. Security Council referred the violence to the Hague-based court in February.

"The office gathered direct evidence about orders issued by Muammar Gaddafi himself, direct evidence of Saif al-Islam organizing the recruitment of mercenaries and direct evidence of the participation of al-Senussi in the attacks against demonstrators," Moreno-Ocampo said at the ICC on Monday.

Thousands of people have been killed in the conflict in the North African oil-producing desert nation, the bloodiest of the revolts which have convulsed the Middle East in what has been called the "Arab Spring."

The prosecutor moved with unprecedented speed in his investigation into the early violence in the uprising against Gaddafi's rule, with the request for arrest warrants coming just 2-1/2 months after the Security Council referral.

He added the office of the prosecutor also documented how the three held meetings "to plan the operations" and Gaddafi used his "absolute authority to commit crimes in Libya."

Libyan officials have already denounced the ICC prosecutor's action, saying the court is a creation of the West for prosecuting African leaders.

"IMPATIENTLY WAITING"

Rebels welcomed the prosecutor's move.

"We have been impatiently waiting for such a decision. It is an important decision," said Belkacem, a rebel spokesman in the besieged city of Misrata. "Gaddafi hasn't stopped killing our brothers in all areas across Libya."

Libyan officials deny killing civilians, saying instead they were forced to take action against criminal armed gangs and al Qaeda militants. They say a NATO bombing campaign is an act of colonial aggression aimed at grabbing Libya's oil.

Moreno-Ocampo said the swiftness of his investigation stems from global consensus that the crimes committed in Libya had to be investigated, although judges will now need to decide whether there is sufficient evidence to proceed with the warrants.

He said the office of the prosecutor documented how the three named held meetings "to plan the operations" and Gaddafi used his "absolute authority to commit crimes in Libya."

The ICC has no police force and relies on member states to enforce arrests. Despite NATO bombing operations intended to protect civilians, Libya has been plunged into civil war, seriously complicating efforts to arrest ICC suspects.

Moreno-Ocampo had said his request for warrants would be based on "strong evidence," which would include photographs, video footage and the testimony of government insiders.

Libya is not an ICC member state and is therefore not obliged to arrest the court's suspects.

"The request for these warrants is a reminder to all in Gaddafi's regime that crimes will not go unpunished and the reach of international justice will be long," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said.

Three months after a revolt began against Gaddafi's four-decade rule, fighting between rebels and government forces on several fronts has come to a near-standstill and Gaddafi is refusing to bow to efforts to force him from power.

EXILE FOR GADDAFI

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, asked about the possibility of arranging exile for Gaddafi, said: "If we talk about it now, we'll burn this possibility."

"We're obviously working with the United Nations on finding exactly this way out," he told Canale 5 television on Monday.

"A political way out that would remove the dictator and his family from the scene and allow the immediate creation of a government of national reconciliation," he said.

NATO warplanes, acting under a U.N. mandate to protect civilians, have stopped government troops advancing on rebel strongholds but the collapse of Gaddafi's rule, which many Western governments seek, has not materialized.

After a series of air strikes on his Bab al-Aziziyah compound in Tripoli, Gaddafi taunted the Western military alliance, saying in an audio recording that he was in a place where NATO could not reach him.

Responding to remarks at the weekend by a senior British commander that NATO needed to broaden its range of targets, a spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday: "Targets are a matter for NATO."

The spokesman said: "We are not seeking to broaden or change the, or seek a new, U.N. resolution."

NATO said it conducted 147 air sorties on Saturday, 48 of them strike sorties that aim to identify and hit targets but do not always deploy munitions. Targets included surface-to-air missile launchers, ammunition stores and artillery pieces.

The uncertain direction of the Libyan conflict poses a dilemma for Western governments. They face voters who are impatient for quick results and want to avoid a repeat of the long-drawn-out fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

An inconclusive outcome is likely to limit Libyan oil exports, keeping world prices high, and drive thousands more migrants to risk death crossing the Mediterranean to Europe.

Previous NATO bombing campaigns, especially in Kosovo in the late 1990s, showed that more aggressive targeting carries with it the risk of civilian casualties.

In Tripoli -- where foreign reporters operate under restrictions on their movement -- the outward signs were that Gaddafi's administration was holding firm.

Security officials in North Africa and elsewhere warn al Qaeda's north African branch could exploit the chaos of a long conflict in Libya to acquire weapons and recruit followers.

(Reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, Tarek Amara and Sylvia Westall in Tunisia, Mariam Karouny in Beirut and Silvia Aloisi in Rome, Aaron Gray-Block in The Hague, Matt Falloon and Adrian Croft in London, James Mackenzie in Rome, David Brunnstrom; Writing by Peter Millership; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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