Libya NTC to announce new government in next few days (Reuters)

BENGHAZI/SIRTE, Libya (Reuters) ? Libya's interim rulers said on Friday they would announce a new government within the next few days, signaling a breakthrough in previously unproductive efforts to form a more inclusive administration to lead the war-torn North African country.

"We've agreed on a number of portfolios and who would hold the most important ones. There will be 22 portfolios and one vice premier," said Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, a spokesman for the National Transitional Council (NTC). "It would be a compact government, a crisis government."

His comments came a day after NTC forces said they had achieved gains on the battlefield, tightening their grip on southern oasis towns which sided with Muammar Gaddafi.

That progress was overshadowed by unsuccessful efforts to take two remaining strongholds loyal to the ousted leader, which if captured would bolster the NTC's credibility.

Discussions in Libya to set up a more inclusive interim government have been unproductive before. It remains unclear whether the NTC, still based in the eastern city of Benghazi, can unify a country split along tribal and regional lines.

NTC forces now control a string of desert towns in Libya's deep south, although they said Gaddafi loyalists were still holding out in pockets of at least one oasis.

So far they have failed to take the two much larger loyalist strongholds far to the north, Bani Walid and Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte, in a series of chaotic offensives which have raised questions about the NTC's ability to control the country.

The NTC, Libya's de facto government since Gaddafi's fall, has been anxious to show it can establish firm control over a country riven by tribal and regional rivalries.

But, despite support from NATO warplanes, government forces have struggled to capture Sirte, the biggest city outside its control.

This is a complex job because many residents sympathize with Gaddafi. The city typifies the problem the NTC faces in reconciling the significant parts of the country that have tribal loyalties to Gaddafi or did not support the revolution.

A Reuters reporter on the western edges of Sirte saw dozens of cars with civilians leaving the town on Friday. Rebels fired sporadic tank shells and artillery at suspected positions of Gaddafi loyalists. NATO aircraft could be heard overhead.

"In the city, as soon as you leave the main square there is shooting. It is an effort to scare the residents," said Massoud al Adawi, a fleeing resident of Sirte. "They (Gaddafi loyalists) don't want people to leave the city. They want to use them as human shields."

Amr al-Aswar, an NTC military commander on the western edge of Sirte, said civilians who remained in the town were the main obstacle.

"The civilians, this is the real problem," he said. "They don't know the truth. Gaddafi's media obscured what's been happening."

Until Thursday, some parts of Sabha, the traditional base for Gaddafi's own tribe about 800 km (500 miles) south of Tripoli, had been occupied by fighters loyal to the leader who lost control of the capital and most of the country last month.

"RESISTANCE IS HOPELESS"

"Our revolutionaries are controlling 100 percent of Sabha city, although there are some pockets of resistance by snipers," NTC military spokesman Ahmed Bani said on Thursday in Tripoli.

"This resistance is hopeless ... They know very well that at the end of the day they will show the white flag or they will die. They are fighting for themselves, not for the tyrant," he told reporters, referring to Gaddafi.

The U.N. atomic agency said on Thursday Gaddafi's government had stored raw uranium near Sabha, after CNN reported NTC forces had found a military site containing what appeared to be radioactive material.

In Vienna, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) spokeswoman Gill Tudor said: "We can confirm that there is yellow cake stored in drums at a site near Sabha ... which Libya previously declared to the IAEA."

The NTC says it also controls Jufra, to the northeast of Sabha, and the nearby oasis towns of Sokna, Waddan, and Houn.

A manhunt for Gaddafi, who has been in hiding for weeks although he occasionally issues defiant audio messages, was drawing closer to its target, said Bani.

A spokesman for Gaddafi, Moussa Ibrahim, said on Thursday NATO air strikes and interim government forces' shelling of Sirte were killing civilians.

His claims could not be verified as journalists are unable to reach the city. NATO comment was not immediately available.

Rebel fighters near Sirte and residents fleeing the city said pro-Gaddafi forces had been executing people suspected of sympathizing with the NTC.

North of Bani Walid, NTC military forces brought forward tanks and Grad rocket launchers for a renewed attempt to take the town although it was not clear when the attack might begin.

The offensive there has been frustrated by stiff resistance from well-drilled loyalist fighters, and also by a lack of organization among the NTC forces. They operate in disparate units based on their home towns, with little overall command.

Many fighters go into battle wearing flip-flop sandals, t-shirts and jeans and have no military training. "We don't take orders from the NTC. We listen only to our own commander," said Ziyad Al Khemri, a fighter from Zawiyah, just west of Tripoli.

If the NTC cannot swiftly take control of the country and its own forces, this may embarrass Western leaders, especially France's Nicolas Sarkozy and Britain's David Cameron, who took a gamble by backing the anti-Gaddafi leadership.

The NTC said last week it would move to Tripoli only after its forces are in full control of Libyan territory, contradicting an earlier pledge to move the interim administration to the capital around mid-September.

"Complete liberation would be announced when we are in control of Sirte and Bani Walid and control all the border crossings," said NTC spokesman Ghoga. "This means Gaddafi forces would have no control over any of those crossings. I believe it's a matter of few days."

(Reporting by Tarek Amara in Tunis, Emma Farge, Joseph Logan and William Maclean in Tripoli, and Sherine El Madany east of Sirte; Writing by Joseph Nasr and David Stamp; Editing by Sophie Hares)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110923/wl_nm/us_libya

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