Libya's new authorities launched a fresh bid today to stave off a battle in Bani Walid, one of Muammar Gaddafi's last bastions, as Niger denied the toppled strongman fled across its border.

Representatives of the new leadership expressed optimism about talks to end a standoff over the oasis town, which was encircled by anti-Gaddafi forces last week, after the negotiations for its surrender collapsed on Sunday.

"The result of these talks is that our colleagues from Bani Walid met us and were reassured that we do not mean them harm and we will preserve their lives," Abdullah Kenshil, said chief negotiator of the National Transitional Council.

The gathering at a mosque in Wishtata village, on the outskirts of the besieged town, started and ended with prayers and celebratory gunfire.

Also today, anti-Gaddafi forces disarmed a tribe loyal to the fallen dictator east of his hometown of Sirte, seizing their weapons, an AFP correspondent reported.

As the tensions eased, rumours swirled that Gaddafi had fled to neighbouring Niger following reports that a convoy of up to 200 vehicles had crossed from Libya.

The convoy drove through the city of Agadez, a stronghold of the former Tuareg rebellion the ousted Libyan leader once supported, a Niger military source said on condition of anonymity.

"I saw an exceptionally large and rare convoy of several dozen vehicles enter Agadez from Arlit... and go towards Niamey," the source said.

"There are persistent rumours that Gaddafi or one of his sons are travelling in the convoy," the source said, adding the convoy included civilian and military vehicles.

The new leadership in Tripoli simply confirmed it knew of a convoy crossing into Niger.

"We can confirm that around 200 cars crossed from Libya to Niger, but we can't confirm who was in this convoy," Jalal al-Gallal, the NTC spokesman in the Libyan capital, told AFP.

But Niger's Foreign Minister Mohamed Bazoum was adamant the ousted Libyan leader was not in the convoy.

"It is not true, it is not Gaddafi and I do not think the convoy was of the size attributed to it," he told AFP by phone from Algiers.

"The truth is that several people, of varying importance, arrived in Niger. That's it, there are no high-profile figures, certainly not Gaddafi himself nor any of his sons," Bazoum said.

He said the only officials in the convoy were Libyan TV executives.

When asked whether Gaddafi was welcome in Niger, the minister said that decision was the presidency's but added: "Gaddafi in Niger could cause some problems."

Neighbouring Burkina Faso, another regime with close ties to Gaddafi which has not ruled out offering him shelter, was elusive when addressing reports the convoy was heading to Ouagadougou.

"We have no such information at the moment. Obviously, if they cross our border, we will find out... We are simply going to monitor the situation throughout the day," a government official said.

France, too, said it has no information to suggest Gaddafi had entered Niger.

And Gaddafi's spokesman Mussa Ibrahim insisted his boss was still in Libya and ready with his sons to fight to the death.

Gaddafi is "in excellent health and planning and organising Libya's defence," Ibrahim told Syria's Arrai television channel on Monday. "He is in place that those scums did not reach. He is fighting inside Libya.

"We are still powerful," he said, adding that the sons of the fugitive dictator "had assumed their role in the defence of and sacrifice for" their country. He however did not name them.

Pledging "a fight to the death or until victory," Ibrahim, who is thought to be in Bani Walid, said: "We will fight and resist for Libya and for all Arabs."

Local officials said most senior figures had fled Bani Walid with Gaddafi's most prominent son, Seif al-Islam, for Sabha, further south, that is still in the hands of regime loyalists.

Two other sons of Gaddafi, Saadi and Mutassim, were also reported to be in Bani Walid.

Those at Tuesday's meeting on Bani Walid were reassured by NTC number two Mahmud Jibril that "no one will be mistreated" if they put down their arms.

"God willing, the negotiations will be successful," he said, calling the talks "an historic opportunity for Bani Walid and the Warfalla tribe" that dominates the region.

Representatives of Bani Walid, southeast of Tripoli, urged Libya's new leaders to declare a general amnesty, saying the Wishtata meeting had cleared the suspicions of its people.

"We are here to spare bloodshed," a Bani Walid leader, Sheikh Abdel Qadir Mayad, told the gathering, even as NTC fighters took up forward positions ready to storm the town.

"Bani Walid has reached the stage where they realise the previous system is over. Bani Walid is with Libya, it is not an exception," said the sheikh.

No clashes were reported on Monday in Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte or the southern oases of Sabha and Al-Jufra.

However, NATO said its warplanes had on Monday bombed a military radar site, a command and control bunker, four armed vehicles, for surface to air missile systems and two "military settlements" at Sirte.

An AFP correspondent said forces of the new regime on Tuesday disarmed a pro-Gaddafi tribe east of Sirte, seizing 150 light weapons.

The operation was launched at dawn by fighters of the "Zintan Martyrs' Brigade" deployed in the Umm Khunfis frontline district some 100 kilometres (62 miles) east of Sirte.

The raid targeted encampments of the pro-Gaddafi Hossnia tribe dug into the desert some 30 kilometres inland, who possessed weapons that had been handed out by pro-Gaddafiforces, a brigade commander, Adel Semfez, said.