Libya government denies offering talks with protesters

The Libyan government has denied holding talks with rebels, Al Arabiya reported, after opponents of Muammar Gaddafi in east Libya said they had rejected an offer to discuss the Libyan leader's exit, as Washington, under mounting pressure to help opposition forces, said it was premature to arm the revolutionaries.

The head of the opposition National Libyan Council told Al Arabiya earlier that a Gaddafi envoy offered to hold talks on the Libyan leader's exit but the council rejected negotiations with a leader they do not trust.

Mustapha Abdul Jalil said that the council might consider not to make criminal pursuit of Gaddafi in case he stepped down.

"Now the first demand is that he announces his departure, and only after that perhaps Libyans will stop pursuing him for crimes," he told Al Arabiya.

"There are indirect contacts with the Americans at the presidential level," he added, without giving details, noting that there was no way for Gaddafi to stay in his post.

On Monday, verious media sources reported that Libyan protesters rejected an offer by Gaddafi to hold a meeting of parliament to work out a deal under which he would step down.

An interim council source was quoted by media as saying that the offer was rejected because it would have amounted to an "honorable" exit for Gaddafi and would offend his victims.

Gaddafi wanted guarantees of personal safety for him and his family and a pledge that they not be put on trial. The offer aimed at having Gaddafi hand over power to a committee formed by the General People's Congress

Premature to arm protesters

The United States, facing rising pressure at home and abroad to do more to protect civilians and hasten Gaddafi's exit from power, appeared to be wary of throwing weapons into a conflict involving groups about which it knows little.

While the White House said it was considering arming the protesters, it insisted that such a move would be premature and Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned that intervention would likely require international approval.

"It would be premature to send a bunch of weapons to a post office box in eastern Libya, we need to not get ahead of ourselves," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

Carney said the United States was trying to "reach out" to Gaddafi opponents through diplomats, business people and non-governmental groups.

He also had a fresh warning to Gaddafi's close associates, saying U.S. intelligence agencies were seeking to identify those involved in the violence which has forced tens of thousands of people to flee the country.

President Barack Obama said he wanted to "send a very clear message to the Libyan people that we will stand with them in the face of unwarranted violence and the continuing suppression of democratic ideals that we've seen there."

"Conspiracy to divide Libya"

Britain and France spearheaded a drive at the United Nations for a no-fly zone as civilians were surrounded by forces loyal to Gaddafi in two western towns, Misrata and Zawiyah, and in the east aircraft launched strikes on the oil terminal town of Ras Lanuf.

Fresh fighting was reported in Zawiyah just outside the Gaddafi-held capital Tripoli, while Gulf states including Saudi Arabia backed efforts to impose a no-fly zone over the oil-rich north African country.

In Tripoli, Libya's foreign minister told reporters that the West was trying to split the country by secretly building up contacts with revolt leaders.

"It is clear that France, Great Britain and the U.S. are now getting in touch with defectors in eastern Libya. It means there is a conspiracy to divide Libya," said the minister, Mussa Kussa.

His comments came after British Foreign Secretary William Hague admitted a "serious misunderstanding" led to the seizing of a special forces team in a bungled mission to contact Libyan protesters.

It would be premature to send a bunch of weapons to a post office box in eastern Libya, we need to not get ahead of ourselves

White House spokesman Jay Carney

Fierce battles

On the ground, Libyan opposition groups and media reported tank fire and fierce battles between opposition forces and Gaddafi loyalists in the city of Zawiyah, a flashpoint 60 kilometers (40 miles) west of Tripoli.

It was not possible to confirm the reports because AFP does not have a correspondent in the city and local residents were not reachable by telephone.

The protesters began pulling back from the key oil port of Ras Lanuf as fighter jets targeted defenses on the edge of town, throwing up palls of smoke amid fears that government forces were gearing for an attack.

One air strike wounded a father and a son when a jet bombed their car on the road outside the town, medics and an AFP reporter said.

Salim Hussein Attia, 47, a manager at the Ras Lanuf oil plant, told AFP that he had been taking his family east to shelter with relatives after government forces captured the nearby hamlet of Bin Jawad.

"We were driving past the petrol station when suddenly we were hit by a big explosion. Thank God my family are all fine. My son Ahmed has just a few stitches," he said.

After the bloodiest fighting of the three-week-old conflict Sunday, the United Nations demanded urgent access to scores of "injured and dying" in the western city of Misrata.

A doctor in Misrata said 21 people, including a child, had been killed in shelling and clashes there on Sunday, and 91 people wounded, the "overwhelming majority" of them civilians.

NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen said such attacks could amount to crimes against humanity.

He said the "outrageous" response of Gaddafi's regime to protests had created "a human crisis on our doorstep which concerns us all" and reiterated his strongest condemnation.

"I can't imagine the international community and the U.N. standing idly by if Colonel Gaddafi and his regime continue to attack his own people systematically," Rasmussen added.

I can't imagine the international community and the U.N. standing idly by if Colonel Gaddafi and his regime continue to attack his own people systematically

NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen

"Civilians bearing the brunt"

At the United Nations, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon named former Jordanian foreign minister Abdul Ilah Khatib as his special envoy to deal with the regime on the humanitarian front.

Ban's office said he noted that "civilians are bearing the brunt of the violence, and calls for an immediate halt to the government's disproportionate use of force and indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets".

Khatib, 56, will leave for New York "in the next few days before travelling to Libya, where he should meet with all parties involved in the conflict", an associate of the former minister told AFP in Amman.

The U.N. called for $160 million (114 million euros) to cover relief support including shelter, food and sanitation for refugees as well as others who remain trapped by the fighting.

With the fighting getting worse and population centers threatened, British and French attempts to have a no-fly zone imposed over Libya received a boost as the six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council announced their support.

The GCC -- including nations such as Bahrain and Oman shaken by their own anti-government protests -- urged the "U.N. Security Council take all necessary measures to protect civilians, including enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya."

But veto-wielding U.N. Security Council permanent member Russia signaled its opposition, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying "the Libyans must resolve their problems themselves."

The regional unrest has sent oil to two-and-a-half-year highs, but prices slipped on Tuesday after the United States refused to rule out tapping its oil reserves to ease the impact on the economy.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April, fell 41 cents to $105.03 per barrel in early Asian trade Tuesday while Brent North Sea crude for April delivery shed 13 cents to $114.91.