Rebels, tribal elders try to negotiate

Tribal elders from one of Moammar Gaddafi's last strongholds were trying to persuade regime loyalists holed up there to lay down their arms, the elders said during yesterday's talks with rebel negotiators, hours after a large convoy of heavily armed Gaddafi soldiers crossed the desert into neighbouring Niger.

The elders left the besieged town of Bani Walid to meet with rebels in a tiny mosque about 40 miles (60 kilometres) away.

"The revolutionaries have not come to humiliate anyone. We are all here to listen," Abdullah Kenshil, the chief rebel nego-tiator, said at the start of the meeting. Then, in a message clearly intended for the hardcore Gaddafi loyalists in Bani Walid, some of whom may be fearing rebel retri-bution, he added: "I say we are not like the old regime. We don't take revenge and we don't bear grudges."

Gaddafi loyalists have been holed up in several towns, including Bani Walid, some 90 miles (140 kilometres) southeast of Tripoli. Thousands of rebel fighters have surrounded the town.