Libyan rebels say ready for conditional ceasefire

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Libya's opposition is ready for a ceasefire provided Muammer Gaddafi's forces end their assaults on rebel-held cities, Transitional National Council leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil said on Friday.

The announcement came two days after rebels were driven out of a string of key oil terminals in eastern Libya they had twice seized during the weeks-old revolt aimed at toppling Gaddafi's 41-year-old regime.

"We agree on a ceasefire on the condition that our brothers in the western cities have freedom of expression and that the forces besieging the cities withdraw," Abdul Jalil told reporters after meeting UN special envoy Abdul Ilah Khatib.

He added, however, that the revolution still aimed to topple the regime.

"The goal of the revolution is the liberation of Libya, the unification of its territory and to have Tripoli as its capital."

Later in the news conference he appeared to back away from earlier rebel calls for Gaddafi to be brought to justice, saying: "Our principal demand is the departure of Muammer Gaddafi and his sons from Libya."

But the official English translator rendered the same sentence differently, saying the council's main demand was to 'unseat Gaddafi and his regime'.

Khatib said he had met top officials in Kadhafi's government in Tripoli on Thursday to call for a ceasefire, the lifting of the siege of the western cities and access for humanitarian aid.

"We don't want announcements of a ceasefire, we want a real ceasefire," Khatib said at the same press conference, adding that it must be 'credible, effective and verifiable'.

Western powers are increasingly looking for a political rather than a military end to the conflict, which began when pro-democracy protests broke out in Benghazi, about 1000 kilometres (600 miles) east of Tripoli, on February 15.

Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle of Germany, which did not back Western air strikes to halt Gaddafi's advance on Benghazi, said on Friday the situation in Libya could not be solved through 'military means' and called for a ceasefire.

It was clear, however, that the rebels were intent on cleaning up their act - keeping civilians and raw recruits away from the frontline.

After weeks of near-anarchy, the Benghazi-based leaders of the insurrection seem to be putting their house in order in an attempt to combat the better-organised forces loyal to Gaddafi.

"We're implementing a new tactic. We don't want any more kids to die. War is not a game. These are the orders of the military council," said Abdelkarim Mansouri, a reservist officer.

Speaking in Ajdabiya south of Benghazi, Mansouri made it clear that the rag-tag and ill-equipped rebels must organise to match Gaddafi's men.