Benghazi, April 1
UN special envoy to Libya Abdelilah al-Khatib arrived in Benghazi today to meet officials of the rebels’ provisional council, rebel officials said.

“He is coming to Benghazi to see the transitional national council about the situation and the needs of the people. We hope he will see for himself the effect on east Libya,” said Salah Hedin, a senior member of the council’s foreign affairs committee.

Hedin was part of a welcoming party waiting for the envoy at an abandoned military airfield outside Benghazi. Hedin said al-Khatib would stay in Benghazi for about four hours and that the visit was a follow-up to the London meeting. He said it was his second visit to the rebel-held region and he was in Tobruk 10 days ago.

Ali Tarhouni, a US-based academic in charge of finance and economics for the interim government, said as he headed into the meeting with al-Khatib: “He’s here for a first-hand look to assess everything — the council, the people.”

“We want continued support of allied forces,” Tarhouni said. “The main thing we need is recognition of the national council as the legitimate government and the lifting of sanctions,” including on oil exports.

“We want to show we are putting our house in order and this will help with recognition,” he added. Meanwhile, Qatar became the first Arab country to recognise Libya’s rebels on Monday. France has also recognised the rebel council as representative of Libya. — Reuters

Tripoli/London, April 1
Facing relentless pounding by Libyan forces, rebels today sought a conditional ceasefire even as speculation mounted that Muammar Gaddafi’s sons were willing to discuss exit strategies following fresh defections.

Forced to retreat from five strategic towns under their control following slowdown by coalition air strikes, the rebels said in Benghazi that they would agree to a ceasefire if Gaddafi withdrew his forces from Libyan cities and allowed them to conduct peaceful protests.

Al-Jazeera channel said there were fierce clashes between the rebels and Gaddafi’s forces outside the eastern oil town of Brega.

Gaddafi, whose troops have recaptured the rebel-held towns including Ras Lanuf and Bin Jawad, suffered a major setback when his Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa landed in London, saying he had defected.

Top Libyan leader Ali Abdessalam Treki, who had been named country’s new envoy to UN, spurned the job and defected to Egypt, the channel reported.

Treki, a former foreign minister and ex-president of the UN General Assembly who has worked closely with Gaddafi for decades, announced his exit on opposition websites, declaring “it’s our right to live in freedom and democracy”. The Pan-Arab channel reported that Gaddafi’s intelligence chief and the Speaker of the Parliament had also fled to Tunisia.

There are speculations that some other senior leaders, close to 68-year-old Gaddafi, may also dump him.

Some Arabic newspapers said Mohammad Abu Al Qassim Al Zawi, head of Libya’s Popular Committee, the country’s equivalent of a parliament, is among the defectors, and reports of other defections, such as that of top oil official Shokri Ghanem, remain unconfirmed.

Al-Jazeera and Arab newspapers said guards had been posted to prevent any other official from leaving the country. Corroborating this, the defecting Libyan ambassador to the UN said: “Most high-level Libyan officials are trying to defect. But they are under tight security and having difficulty in leaving the country.” These defections came as the BBC said that the top Gaddafi envoy, Mohammad Ismail, has been in London for the past few days for talks with British authorities.

Confirming his presence on the British soil, the UK Foreign Office said that in all its contacts with Libyan officials, it had made it clear that “Gaddafi has to go”. — PTI

Tokyo/Fukushima, April 1
As Japan’s heroic workers stepped up their critical task of averting a meltdown at the quake-hit Fukushima nuclear facility, Premier Naoto Kan today vowed to win the “long battle” to tackle the crisis at the plant, where high radiation was detected for the first time in groundwater.

Three weeks after the magnitude-9 quake and tsunami struck Japan’s northeast where the nuclear plant is situated, thousands of Japanese and US troops launched an intensive three-day air and sea search for thousands of people who still remained unaccounted for following the twin disaster.

Authorities also said that tens of thousands of residents evacuated from areas near the Fukushima nuclear plant may not be allowed home for months, as many of them continued to live in temporary shelters.

In a televised address, Prime Minister Kan said he was ready “to face a long-running battle” at the plant and vowed to win it.

Acknowledging that the nuclear power station, located around 220 km from Tokyo, was not “stable enough yet”, Kan promised that he would “inevitably win the battle” and bring the plant under control.

“We cannot say at this stage by when this will happen, but we are trying our best,” he said.

His remarks came as highly radioactive water, which continues to leak from the plant, was found for the first time in groundwater under the crippled plant.

Kan said the government would set up a new task force on reconstruction work by April 11. He invited opposition lawmakers to be part of the panel to cooperate in drafting measures necessary to rebuild the quake-ravaged region.

“If possible, I’d like to have help from people in the opposition camp...and make plans together,” Kan said. “I yearn for such a situation to be created.” The Premier also said the government would scrap some of the policies under the budget for fiscal 2011 to generate more money for reconstruction work. — PTI