Libya fighters stalled at Gaddafi bastions

The National Transitional Council (NTC), Libya's new rulers, also suffered setbacks on the political front when last-minute haggling over portfolios forced an indefinite delay in announcing a cabinet line-up.

Mussa Ibrahim, defeated leader Muammar Gaddafi's spokesman, boasted in a phone call to Syria-based Arrai television channel that loyalist troops have won several battles in the past few days against NTC fighters.

The commander of the NTC's Al-Qabra brigade, Walid al-Feturi, said Sunday they were clearing the roads in Sirte for fleeing civilians before launching a new assault on the Mediterranean city, which has a population of about 130,000.

"The first problem is that there are children and civilians inside and we don't want to use Grad rockets or heavy artillery," Feturi told AFP on the edge of Sirte.

"But on the other side they are shooting at us with heavy machine guns and artillery," he said. "We are trying to get out family and children step by step."

Frontline fighters in Sirte are convinced that Mutassim Gaddafi, a career soldier and former national security advisor to his father, is hiding in the southern outskirts of the one-time strongman's hometown.

The whereabouts of toppled Muammar Gaddafi and his children have been the subject of countless rumours since he fled Tripoli as rebel forces advanced.

The new regime's forces were also approaching Sirte from the west, and on Sunday overran the town of Harawa, 60 kilometres away (38 miles), an AFP correspondent said.
Mustafa bin Dardaf, one of the commanders of the Zintan Brigade leading the western advance, said that late on Sunday NTC forces had also entered the town of Sultana 38 kilometres west of Sirte, and would push forward on Monday.

Gaddafi loyalists were meanwhile also putting up stiff resistance in Bani Walid, southeast of Tripoli, an AFP correspondent said.

The birth of a new government in Libya, which had been scheduled for Sunday, has been postponed due to squabbling over portfolios.

"The announcement of a new transitional government has been postponed indefinitely in order to finalise consultations," NTC number two Mahmud Jibril told reporters in the eastern city of Benghazi.

But in an apparent effort to put on a brave face, Jibril said much has been achieved to deal out several portfolios, adding that he expected consultations on the rest to be "over quickly."