Libya, Sep 14: Libya’s new interim leader met the most senior US official to visit Tripoli since the fall of Gaddafi, though details of Wednesday’s talks were not immediately available.
 Reuters journalists saw Jeffrey Feltman, a key figure in US Middle East policy, meet Mustafa Abdel Jalil at a public building in the capital. It was not clear when Feltman, who is Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department, had arrived in Libya.
 Compared to other parts of the country, Tripoli has been relatively stable since forces of the new ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) overran it three weeks ago. NTC fighters backed by NATO are trying to capture at least three towns still held by Gaddafi loyalists.
 Interim government forces are besieging one of those last bastions, Bani Walid, 180 km (110 miles) south of Tripoli, along with Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte on the Mediterranean coast and Sabha, deep in the southern desert.
 After a week of fighting NTC forces at Bani Walid have been urging people to leave before they try to storm the town. Scores of cars packed with families left Bani Walid on Wednesday as NTC forces broadcast messages telling them to go and handed out free petrol to help them evacuate.
 Gaddafi’s whereabouts are unknown. NTC officials have said he could be hiding in one of the outposts like Bani Walid, helping to rally a last stand against NATO-backed forces.
 Libya’s interim rulers have said that, along with taking control of pro-Gaddafi enclaves, capturing or killing the fugitive leader is a priority and only then could Libya be declared “liberated”.
 The US State Department said one of his sons, Saadi Gaddafi, who arrived in neighbouring Niger on Sunday on one of four convoys of senior Gaddafi loyalists to have crossed the southern Sahara desert frontier, was being held there.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 14 Sep 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 14 Sep 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 15 Sep 2011 00:00:00 IST