Libyan rebels set deadline for final battle

A reveller holds up his baby as thousands celebrate in Martyrs Square China said Wednesday it was sending a vice-minister to "observe" a Paris conference on the future of Libya, whose rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) Beijing has not officially recognised.Around 60 nations are expected to be represented at Thursday's Friends of Libya conference, to be co-chaired by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron.
US Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have all said they will attend, while most other participants said they would send their foreign ministers.
China said it would be represented by its Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun at the meeting, which will seek to address the reconstruction of Libya after months of violence and decades of misrule under Moamer Kadhafi's regime.
China's foreign ministry said Jun would attend "as the representative and observer of the Chinese government".
"China supports relevant parties' efforts to restore the stability of Libya and facilitate the stable transfer of Libya's political power," spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement.
"We are also willing to play a positive role in the future rebuilding of Libya together with the international community."
Libyan rebels have given forces loyal to Moamer Gaddafi until Saturday to surrender or face the "final battle" of a more than six-month uprising against the fugitive dictator's crumbling regime.
The headof the conflict-wracked country's National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, said the ultimatum was offered to mark the three-day Eid al-Fitr feast following the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
Talks are under way with civic and tribal leaders in a number of towns, including Gaddafi's birthplace Sirte, where he may be holed up, in an effort to avoid bloodshed, but more fighting could be imminent.
"From Saturday, if no peaceful solution is in sight on the ground, we will resort to military force," Abdel Jalil said, warning that Gaddafi "is not finished yet."
NATO also said Gaddafi's influence remained potent despite him being on the run.
"He is displaying a capability to exercise some level of command and control," Colonel Roland Lavoie, military spokesman of the NATO air mission in Libya, told a news briefing via video link from his headquarters in Naples.
While rebels sought to talk Gaddafi troops into surrendering in Sirte, their last major stronghold, NATO air strikes were now focused around the town.
"The pro-Gaddafi troops that we see are not in total disarray, they are retreating in an orderly fashion, conceding ground and going to the second-best position that they could hold to continue their warfare," Lavoie added.
Rebel military spokesman Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani told a news conference in the eastern stronghold of Benghazi on Tuesday that his forces were "ready for a final military battle," describing Saturday as "zero hour."
"We have been given no indication of a peaceful surrender... We continue to seek a peaceful solution, but on Saturday we will use different methods against these criminals," he said.
The capital Tripoli, meanwhile, launched Eid celebrations late Tuesday with bursts of red tracer rounds fired into the sky as a substitute for fireworks and people congregating in Martyr's Square, formerly known as Green Square.
"This is the first time we have felt relaxed in 42 years," Amari Abdulla, 24, told AFP. "We will celebrate as in the past but this time it is simply better. It is a new Libya."
Italian news agency ANSA, citing "authoritative Libyan diplomatic sources," reported on Monday that Gaddafi and his two sons -- Saadi and Seif al-Islam -- were hiding in Bani Walid, a town southeast of Tripoli.
The rebel military spokesman said Gaddafi's once feared intelligence chief, Abdullah al-Senussi, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, may have been killed as he tried to reach Bani Walid.
Rebel fighters had destroyed two armoured vehicles on the road from the town of Tarhuna closer to the capital, and captured Gaddafi loyalists told them one of the passengers was Senussi, Bani said.
Libyan state television denied rebel claims that another of Gaddafi's sons, Khamis, had been killed as he too tried to reach Bani Walid.
The rebels also renewed their calls for neighbouring Algeria to hand over Gaddafi's wife and three more of his children who fled over the border on Monday.
Algerian foreign ministry spokesman Amar Belani told AFP the decision to allow Gaddafi's wife Safiya, daughter Aisha and sons Mohammed and Hannibal to cross into the country was based solely on humanitarian concerns.
Just hours after crossing over, Aisha gave birth to a baby girl, a government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"Aisha gave birth very early this morning. She had a little girl. Mother and daughter are doing fine."
The rebels' fledgling new administration meanwhile received a major boost to its finances with clearance from a UN sanctions committee for Britain to release $1.6 billion in seized regime assets to pay for emergency relief.
Similar applications by Germany to release about one billion euros ($1.4 billion) and France to unfreeze about five billion euros ($7.2 billion) were also under consideration but being held up by Russia, diplomats said.
The NTC executive committee number two said Libya also expected to rehabilitate "a lot" of its oil wells in the "next few days" and downplayed the threat of sabotage by diehard Gaddafi loyalists.
"Gaddafi is on the run now and we now have a good idea where is," Ali Tarhuni said without elaborating. "The threat is present but not too dangerous."
A senior National Transitional Council official in Libya has told Al Jazeera that Saadi Gaddafi, the third son of deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi, is willing to give himself up.
Abdelhakim Belhaj, the NTC's military leader in Tripoli,  said on Wednesday that Saddi called him and asked if he can surrender.
In an exclusive interview, Belhaj said the revolutionaries know for sure where some of the regime leaders are, including unconfirmed reports on where Gaddafi is.
"Gaddafi is now fleeing - and we have a good idea where he is," Ali Tarhouni, a senior NTC minister said earlier, without elaborating. "We don't have any doubt that we will catch him."
There has been speculation that Gaddafi is seeking refuge in Sirte or one of the other remaining regime strongholds, among them the towns of Bani Walid or Sabha.
Al Jazeera's James Bays, reporting from Tripoli said: “We asked him [Belhaj] about the military situation, remaining members of the Gaddafi family, and he said that he believes one of Gaddafi's sons, Saadi, is preparing to surrender.
"According to Belhaj, Saddi doesn't want to leave Libya, he wants to talk to the national council and negotiate his surrender. He thinks he knows the whereabouts of Saddi Gaddafi from the phone call. Also says he believes some senior figures of the government are now ready to surrender, such as the former prime minister.
"Belhaj made a point of saying that any of those who do surrender will be treated properly, and court cases will be held to international norms. Belhaj thought that Muammar Gaddafi is less likely to surrender, but would be treated fairly if he did. He would be held in custody with proper human rights.”
In all, Gaddafi has eight biological children, a daughter and seven sons.
Meanwhile, Khamis Gaddafi, another of Gaddafi's sons, whose military unit is accused of killing dozens of detainees in Tripoli, may be placed on the international war crimes court's most-wanted list, the prosecutor told the Reuters news agency on Monday.
The Hague-based International Criminal Court [ICC] has already approved warrants for the arrest of Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam, and Libyan intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi on charges of crimes against humanity.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC prosecutor, said he may also apply for an arrest warrant for Khamis, after Human Rights Watch said members of the Khamis Brigade, a force commanded by him, appeared to have carried out summary executions of detainees whose bodies were found in a warehouse in Tripoli.
"We know Khamis should also be prosecuted because he was the commander of the brigade that was more active on some of the crimes," Moreno-Ocampo said.
Moreno-Ocampo said a UN Human Rights Council commission would conduct further investigations on the ground in Libya soon and that he would base his decisions on the results.
Libya's interim leadership has rejected the idea of deploying any kind of international military force, the UN envoy to the country has said.
Ian Martin said the UN had considered the deployment of military observers.
Earlier, the chairman of the National Transitional Council (NTC) said the country did not need outside help to maintain security.
The news came as fighters loyal to the council approached the pro-Gaddafi stronghold of Sirte from east and west.
The town's defenders have been given until Saturday to surrender.
Libya's deputy representative to the UN, Ibrahim Dabbashi, told the BBC that the situation in Libya was unique.
"They [the UN] put the possibility of deploying peacekeepers on the ground but in fact the Libyan crisis is a special case.
"It is not a civil war, it is not a conflict between two parties, it is the people who are defending themselves against the dictatorship."
However, Mr Martin said the UN did expect to be asked to help establish a police force.
"We don't now expect military observers to be requested," he said after a meeting of the UN Security Council.
"It's very clear that the Libyans want to avoid any kind of military deployment of the UN or others," he said.
Mr Martin added that one of the greatest challenges for the UN would be helping the country prepare for democratic elections.
"Let's remember [...] there's essentially no living memory of elections, there's no electoral machinery, there's no electoral commission, no history of political parties, no independent civil society, independent media are only beginning to emerge in the east in recent times.
"That's going to be quite a challenge, sort of organisationally, and it's clear that the NTC wish the UN to play a major role in that process."
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said that growing humanitarian shortages in Libya demand urgent action and appealed to the security council to be "responsive" to requests from the transitional authority for funding.
Though stockpiles of medical supplies and food stashed away by the government were found over the weekend, water supplies are short.
"An estimated 60% of Tripoli's population is without water and sanitation," he said. The EU's humanitarian office says that pro-Gaddafi forces are responsible for cutting supplies.
On Tuesday, the UN Security Council let Britain release 1.86bn dinars ($1.55bn; £950m) in frozen assets to buy aid for Libya but an attempt by France and Germany to release an additional $8.6bn remains blocked.
Diplomats said that Russia was holding up Germany's request to release about 1bn euros ($1.4bn) in seized assets and France's move to unfreeze about five billion euros ($7.2bn) to buy humanitarian aid, Agence France Presse reports.
As anti-Gaddafi fighters converge on his birthplace of Sirte, interim leaders gave the town's defenders an ultimatum, telling them that they had until Saturday to surrender or face military force.
Also it has emerged that Col Gaddafi's wife and three of his adult children fled to neighbouring Algeria in the early hours of Monday morning.
Though Col Gaddafi's whereabouts remain unknown, with suggestions he may be in Sabha, Sirte or Bani Walid, the deputy head of the NTC, Ali Tarhouni, said they have a good idea of where he is and are confident that they will catch him.