Libya rebels tighten noose on Gaddafi bastion

Libyan rebels closed in on Muammar Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte from both east and west today, a senior military commander said, as the insurgents scrambled to restore essential services to Tripoli.

Rebel forces moved to within 30 kilometres of Sirte from the west and captured Bin Jawad 100 kilometres to the east, the rebel commander in Misrata, Mohammed al-Fortiya, said.

"We took Bin Jawad today (Sunday)" on the eastern front, and "the thwar (rebel fighters) from Misrata are 30 kilometres from Sirte" in the west, Fortiya said.

Rebels pushing west from the oil hub of Ras Lanuf had been stuck for four days outside Bin Jawad, a key town on the coast road of the Gulf of Sirte, as Gaddafi's forces kept up a defiant resistance.

Sirte is the elusive Gaddafi's last bastion after rebels smashed his forces in Tripoli and seized his Bab al-Aziziya headquarters, and now the insurgents are focusing on capturing the Libyan leader.

Although his whereabouts remain a mystery, there is widespread speculation that Gaddafi is holed up in Sirte, 360 kilometres east of Tripoli, among tribal supporters there.

Fortiya said talks were under way with tribal leaders in Sirte for its surrender, adding that only tribal leaders were involved, and that to his knowledge no direct contact had been made with Gaddafi himself.

"We are negotiating with the tribes for Sirte's peaceful surrender," he said.

But a spokesperson for the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC), Mahmud Shammam, warned that negotiations for Sirte's peaceful handover would not be open-ended.

"The negotiations will not go on for ever," he said. "The talks are still going on... We would like to unify Libya very quickly."

In the rebel bastion of Benghazi, military spokesperson Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani told reporters more than 10,000 prisoners have been freed from Gaddafi's jails since the fall of Tripoli but almost 50,000 others are still missing.

"The number of people arrested over the past months is estimated at between 57,000 and 60,000," he said. "Between 10,000 and 11,000 prisoners have been freed up until now... so where are the others?"

In the capital, where life is slowly returning to normal after six months of bloody rebellion to end Gaddafi's 42-year iron-fisted rule, sporadic gunfire was heard overnight.

As rebels scrambled to get Tripoli back on its feet and appealed for funds, the Arab League early today urged the UN Security Council to unlock billions of dollars in Libyan assets and property.

Some 70 per cent of homes in central Tripoli have no running water because of damage to the network, but potable water is being distributed from mosques, NTC officials said.

Abed al-Obeidi, deputy chief of the transitional council in Tripoli, said the water problem was because of technical faults.

The network... has technical failures," mainly with pumping, and "it is not due to sabotage," Obeidi said a day after NTC chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil attributed Tripoli water and electricity cuts to "sabotage by Gaddafi's forces."

Several explosions and machine-gun fire rattled Tripoli overnight, but it was unclear if those responsible were Gaddafi loyalists or rebels celebrating the takeover of the capital a week ago.