Col Gaddafi 'offers talks on power transfer'

Fugitive Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi is ready to begin talks to transfer power, US media has been told.

A spokesman told the Associated Press news agency negotiations would be led by Col Gaddafi's son, Saadi. He also said Col Gaddafi was still in Libya.

Rebels say desperately-needed fuel and water supplies should begin arriving in Tripoli on Sunday.

Meanwhile, more than 50 charred bodies have been found in a burnt-out warehouse south of Tripoli.

Residents of the district of Salah al-Din said they were civilians who had been executed on Tuesday by members of a brigade commanded by Col Gaddafi's son, Khamis, before they abandoned a nearby military base.

Human Rights Watch says it has evidence that pro-Gaddafi forces killed at least 17 prisoners and carried out "suspected arbitrary executions of dozens of civilians, including professionals" in the days before Tripoli fell to the rebels.

On Friday, more than 200 decomposing bodies were found at an abandoned hospital in the capital's Abu Salim district. Doctors and nurses fled because of the fighting and many injured patients were left to die.
'Sea of blood'
The Associated Press news agency in New York reported that it had received a call from Col Gaddafi's spokesman Moussa Ibrahim, who said the former leader was still in Libya although he did not specify where.
 
Analysis

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Colonel Gaddafi's offer to negotiate is pretty significant if only because it looks as though he is thinking about giving up.

He wouldn't be negotiating from any position of strength, except that the main reason for the shortage of water seems to be because pro-Gaddafi forces are still in control of the great man-made river water supplies in the south.
Any deal with Col Gaddafi would enable water to be returned to Tripoli, and there are other aspects of things that would improve if some sort of deal was made with him.
However, it is impossible to imagine that any deal - especially given the evidence of massacres that have come to light - would enable him to sit quietly in a private house in Tripoli.

Mr Ibrahim, whom AP says it identified by his voice, said Col Gaddafi had offered power transfer negotiations headed by his son, Saadi.

Early this week, CNN reported it had been in email contact with Saadi Gaddafi who confirmed his desire to negotiate a ceasefire.

"I will try to save my city Tripoli and 2 millions of people living there... otherwise Tripoli will be lost forever like Somalia," he wrote.

Without a cease-fire, Mr Gaddafi added, "Soon it will be a sea of blood."

Rebel fighters who now control most of the country, including the capital Tripoli, believe Col Gaddafi is still in hiding in the area.

The rebels' information minister, Mahmoud Shammam, said they were continuing to hunt for Col Gaddafi but it would not stop them from efforts to get the country back on its feet.

The focus has now moved to the urgent humanitarian situation in Tripoli, our correspondent says.

The opposition says it will start distributing 30,000 tonnes of petrol on Sunday, and provide cooking gas within the next 48 hours.

A ship carrying fresh water and diesel for the power stations is due to dock in the next couple of days.
Symbolic victory
Meanwhile, rebels are advancing towards one of the last sizeable pockets of pro-Gaddafi support in Libya - the town of Sirte.

The BBC's Clive Myrie in nearby Ras Lanuf says the fighters are making good progress, having taken the town of Bin Jawad, around 100km (62 miles) away, on Saturday afternoon.

Rebel commanders say negotiations are being held with Sirte's elders to try and force a peaceful surrender of the town, but so far those talks have gone nowhere.

The town sits in the middle of the main east-west coastal highway that runs across Libya and, until the rebels can take control of it, they cannot bring the two halves of the country together under their control.

Sirte is also Col Gaddafi's birthplace, meaning its fall would also be a huge symbolic victory for the rebel leadership, our correspondent says.

BBC