Libyan rebels have extended a deadline for forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi to surrender by a week, officials in Benghazi said, but others in the capital Tripoli denied it.
"We give them one week more," Mohammed Zawawi told AFP in the rebels' eastern bastion, stating that the ultimatum, which would have expired on Saturday, applied to areas holding out in the south and the centre, as well as to Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte.
"Sirte is not that strategic so that we rush," he said. "We give them more time to make some progress on the negotiations."
Sirte, on the coast between Tripoli and Benghazi and the main town still in loyalist hands, is besieged by rebel forces from east and west.
"We are trying to make them surrender by cutting water and electricity there," Zawawi said.
The postponement was confirmed by the rebels' military spokesman in Benghazi, Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani, but Omar al-Hariri, the senior military official on the rebels' Transitional Council, said in Tripoli there was "no extension."
"It is not correct," he told AFP, adding that he had spoken to other members of the TNC who said they had not considered extending the deadline.
"I think there won't be any extension."
An assistant to the official TNC spokesman Mahmud Shammam, currently in Paris at a "Friends of Libya" conference, added: "It is not true, we did not release any statement about this issue."
The rebels had said on Tuesday they were ready for the final battle of their more than six-month uprising after their leaders gaveGaddafi's last loyalists a Saturday deadline to surrender.
TNC head Mustafa Abdel Jalil said the respite was offered to mark the three-day Eid al-Fitr feast which follows the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
"From Saturday, if no peaceful solution is in sight on the ground, we will resort to military force," Abdel Jalil had said.
The rebels said earlier on Thursday they no longer believed fallen strongman Kadhafi is hiding in Sirte, and are talking with tribal chiefs for the city's peaceful surrender.
Jalal al-Digheily, defence minister in the NTC, was speaking at Nofilia, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Sirte.
"There will be no attack on Sirte just now. We continue to negotiate to enter the city peacefully," Digheily said. "We are negotiating with tribal leaders and seek a peaceful solution for all Libyans."
"The tribal chiefs agreed with us that we must not wage war in the city," said rebel commander Yunes al-Abderi. He said he was "very optimistic" about a peaceful surrender, although "some units (of Kadhafi loyalists) still do not want to go."