TRIPOLI - Muammar Gaddafi is in a desert town outside Tripoli planning a fightback, a Libyan military chief said on Thursday, as Libya's interim rulers conferred with world powers on reshaping a nation torn by 42 years of one-man rule and six months of war. Abdel Majid Mlegta, coordinator of the Tripoli military operations room, told Reuters “someone we trust” had said Gaddafi fled to Bani Walid, 150 km (95 miles) southeast of the capital, with his son Saif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senoussi three days after Tripoli fell last week. “They wanted to set up an operations room there and conduct aggressive operations against us,” he said. “We have talked to notables from Bani Walid to arrest him and hand him over. They haven't responded. We are assessing our position.” Mlegta said Ali al-Ahwal, Gaddafi's coordinator for tribes, was also in Bani Walid, a stronghold of the powerful Warfalla tribe, Libya's biggest at about a million strong among a population of six million, but by no means solidly pro-Gaddafi. “In four days we will come with up a solution. We are capable of ending the crisis but military action is out of the question right now,” Mlegta said. “We cannot attack this tribe because many of our brigades in Benghazi and Zintan are from Bani Walid. The sons of Bani Walid hold the key to the solution.” Fighters of Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) said this week that they were 30 km from Bani Walid. The council has given pro-Gaddafi forces in the coastal city of Sirte until Saturday to surrender or face force. The war may not be over until Gaddafi is killed or captured, but Libyans are keen to move on. Russia recognised the NTC as Libya's new leaders gathered with their international partners in Paris to coordinate political and economic reconstruction 42 years to the day since Gaddafi toppled King Idris in a military coup in 1969. While the conference is focused on rebuilding Libya, some participants will also be jostling for a share in postwar contracts in the wealthy North African oil and gas producer. Russia abstained from a UN Security Council vote in March that allowed Western military intervention in Libya but then repeatedly accused NATO forces of overstepping their mandate to protect civilians and of siding with rebels in the civil war. Some in Libya suggest that Tripoli may slight nations like Russia and China in favour of stalwarts of the intervention such as Britain, France, the United States and Qatar. Eager to meet immediate civilian needs, the NTC is expected to push for rapid access to billions of dollars in foreign-held Libyan assets frozen under UN sanctions on Gaddafi. The United States and Britain have won UN permission to unfreeze $1.5 billion each of Libyan assets and France has received approval for the release of 1.5 billion euros ($2.16 billion) out of a total 7.6 billion euros. NATO warplanes are still harrying pro-Gaddafi forces in the coastal city of Sirte and some desert towns in the interior. With the NTC's Saturday ultimatum looming, some civilians have fled from Sirte, fearing a bloody showdown, and Gaddafi's son Saadi began talking of a peaceful solution.
