BENGHAZI, Libya – Libya’s air force carried out new raids Tuesday on a rebel-held town as the revolt against Moamer Gadhafi’s regime entered its third week amid mounting calls for a no-fly zone over the country.
As the violence escalated, the Arab League said foreign ministers of its member states would meet Friday for crisis talks on the situation.
A rebel spokesman meanwhile said that an intermediary of Gadhafi had offered talks with the opposition leadership but was rejected outright.
The statement was dismissed as "rubbish" by a government official in Tripoli speaking on condition of anonymity.
"I think there was an attempt from Gadhafi’s people with the provisional national council. It has been rejected," said Mustafa Gheriani, a media organiser at the rebels’ headquarters in Benghazi.
"We’re not going to negotiate with him. He knows where the airport is in Tripoli and all he needs to do is leave and stop the bloodshed."
"It’s rubbish. It’s very annoying to comment on such bull," the government official said of the reported offer of talks.
The head of the council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, also said the rebel leadership would not pursue criminal charges against Gadhafi if he resigns and leaves the country.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague has already launched a probe against Gadhafi, three of his sons and four top aides on suspicion of committing crimes against humanity in Libya.
Unconfirmed reports that Gadhafi was seeking a safe exit brought oil prices off 30-month highs, as OPEC held discussions over Libya, traders said.
New York’s light sweet crude for delivery in April sank 95 cents to USD104.49, while in London Brent North Sea crude dropped 54 cents to USD114.50 per barrel.
Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are having talks on the market in light of the Libyan turmoil, but had not decided whether to lift output, Kuwaiti oil minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah al-Sabah said.
A warplane bombed a two-storey block of flats on the eastern edge of the strategic oil town of Ras Lanuf Tuesday, blowing off the side wall of the bottom floor, an AFP reporter said.
There were no initial reports of casualties from the fourth raid of the day. An earlier attack left one person wounded, an AFP photographer said.
Libyan jets have carried out daily strikes against the rebels trying to push westward towards Gadhafi’s birthplace of Sirte, and while most have missed their targets, a father and a son were wounded at Ras Lanuf on Monday.
An AFP reporter saw fewer rebels at the main Ras Lanuf checkpoint, the front line since the insurgents suffered the first check to their advance at Bin Jawad, 30 kilometres (18 miles) to the west last week.
Pro-Gadhafi ground forces failed to follow up their success but rebels accompanied by many civilians began pulling out of Ras Lanuf on Monday.
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu stepped up the pressure Tuesday for the United Nations to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya.
"We join our voice to the voices asking for a no-fly zone in Libya, and we call on the Security Council to do its duty in this regard," Ihsanoglu said at the start of an emergency meeting of the 57-member OIC in Saudi Arabia.
But he rejected "any military interference (on the ground) in Libya."
The OIC – which includes Libya – is meeting in Jidda to discuss its response to the conflict which has left at least 1,000 people dead, including many civilians.
The six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council on Monday urged the "UN Security Council (to) take all necessary measures to protect civilians, including enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya".
Diplomats said Monday a joint British-French resolution for a no-fly zone to hamper Gadhafi’s offensive and deny his air force the freedom to attack the rag-tag rebel elements could go before the Security Council as early as this week.
But any move toward collective military action of any kind is likely to face tough resistance from China, Russia and other members of the Security Council.
The United States, which would likely bear the main burden of any such operation, has said it is studying the possibility while warning of the major commitment it would entail.
Facing rising pressure at home and abroad to do more to protect civilians and hasten Gadhafi’s exit from power, Washington also appeared to be wary of throwing weapons into a conflict involving groups about which it knows little.
While the White House said it was considering arming the rebels, it insisted such a move would be premature and Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned that intervention would likely require international approval.
"It would be premature to send a bunch of weapons to a post office box in eastern Libya, we need to not get ahead of ourselves," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
Libya’s Foreign Minister Mussa Kussa accused the West Monday of trying to split the country by secretly building up contacts with rebel leaders.
"It is clear that France, Great Britain and the U.S. are now getting in touch with defectors in eastern Libya. It means there is a conspiracy to divide Libya," he told a press conference in Tripoli.
Ihsanoglu also called on the Libyan authorities to "immediately allow the entrance of humanitarian aid," backing UN demands for urgent access to the victims of fighting as government forces try to regain control of western cities such as Misrata and Zawiyah.
Two members of the rebel provisional national council are to speak to the European parliament, the head of the assembly’s liberal group, Guy Verhofstadt, said Tuesday, adding that he had invited European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to meet them.
Khartoum University meanwhile said it had decided to revoke the honorary doctorate that it awarded to Gadhafi in 1996 and condemned the actions of his regime against the Libyan people.
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