Libya rebels dismiss deal with Gaddafi son

British Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday made a surprise visit to the southern Italian Gioia del Colle base hosting British jets enforcing the no-fly zone, and announced four more Tornado warplanes for the Libya mission.

He said the British jets had saved “literally thousands of lives in Benghazi and elsewhere in Libya.”

Meanwhile rebel fighters came under heavy shelling from Muammar Gaddafi’s forces as they pushed towards Brega in a new bid to take the refinery town, forcing them to beat a hasty but measured retreat, an AFP correspondent reported.

The battle for the town is fast reaching stalemate.

Col Gaddafi’s men will not risk advancing farther into rebel-held territory through the open desert, where they are easy targets for Nato air strikes.

But the rebels do not have the weaponry to counter the artillery the loyalists have inside the town.

Libyan rebels yesterday also dismissed any possible peace deal which might see Col Gaddafi’s son left in charge of the war-wracked country.

Rebel fighters also made a new attempt to recapture Brega, advancing to the outskirts of the oil refinery town only to be forced back under artillery fire, as Col Gaddafi’s envoy arrived in Turkey and later Malta for talks on a possible “roadmap”.

Former colonial power Italy announced it was joining France and Qatar in recognising the rebels’ Transitional National Council, and said it would send ships and planes to evacuate the wounded from besieged Misurata city.

Loyalist forces were also attacking oilfields in the remote south that the insurgents were hoping to use to fund their month-old revolt.

The rebels insisted Col Gaddafi’s entire family must leave Libya before there could be a truce amid reports the regime is pursuing a ceasefire and his sons want to oversee a transition.

The New York Times had reported that two of Col Gaddafi’s sons were offering to oversee a transition to a constitutional democracy that would include their father’s removal from power. But the rebels swiftly rejected any deal involving the Gaddafi family.

“Gaddafi and his sons have to leave before any diplomatic negotiations can take place,” the spokesman of the rebels’ Transitional National Council, Shamseddin Abdulmelah said.

He said the regime had lost any right to talk of a negotiated exit after it continued to pound Misurata, 214 kilometres east of Tripoli.

Rebels in Misurata have again asked for support from the international coalition to counter the heavy artillery of Col Gaddafi’s forces who have bombarded the city for a month.