African leaders in rebel talks after Gaddafi backs plan

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BENGHAZI, April 11(Agencies): Members of an African Union(AU) delegation are offering a peace proposal to rebel leaders in the city of Benghazi to end Libya's eight-week conflict. The AU says the Gaddafi government has already accepted the plan. The delegation met leader Muammar Gaddafi Sunday. Rebels promised to study the plan, but ruled out a truce unless Gaddafi stepped down and his forces withdrew. Nato - whose air strikes are targeting pro-Gaddafi forces - says a ceasefire must be credible and verifiable. Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called for "a complete end to violence and a complete end to all attacks against and abuses of civilians". But he warned that military action alone would not solve the crisis in Libya, saying a solution must also offer political reforms. The rebels have criticized Nato for not carrying out enough air strikes, as well as for a so-called "friendly fire" incident last week in which at least four people were killed. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Gaddafi and his sons should play no role in Libyan politics when a resolution is found to the current conflict. In Ajbadiya, rebels buried the bodies of the last of at least 35 Gaddafi loyalists as they consolidated their hold on the key crossroads town, recaptured in fierce fighting at the weekend. Around 200 people waving rebel flags were gathered outside the airport when the high-level African Union delegation arrived, welcoming its efforts but demanding Kadhafi's overthrow. "The people must be allowed to go into the streets to express their opinion and the soldiers must return to their barracks," Shamsiddin Abdulmolah, a spokesman for the rebels' Transitional National Council, told AFP. He also demanded the release of hundreds of people who have gone missing since the outbreak of the popular uprising and are believed to be held by Gaddafi's forces. South African President Jacob Zuma said Tripoli had accepted the African Union's plan for a ceasefire which would halt a NATO bombing campaign that destroyed 26 loyalist tanks on Sunday alone. "We also in this communique are making a call on NATO to cease the bombings to allow and to give a ceasefire a chance," Zuma stressed. But the rebels doubt the Libyan strongman would adhere to such a deal. "The world has seen these offers of ceasefires before and within 15 minutes (Kadhafi) starts shooting again," Abdulmolah said. The rebels have said they would negotiate a political transition to democracy with certain senior regime figures but only on the condition that Kadhafi and his sons leave the country. The South African leader is taking no further part in the talks as he was leaving Libya to return home due to prior commitments. The other members of the AU team -- the leaders of Mali, Amadou Toumani Toure, Mauritania, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, and Congo's Denis Sassou Nguesso, as well as Ugandan Foreign Minister Henry Oryem Okello, representing President Yoweri Museveni -- all arrived in Benghazi, 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) east of Tripoli. Frattini told French radio station Europe 1 that France and Britain, which led calls for military intervention in Libya, agreed with Italy on the need for the de facto ruling family to step aside to end the crisis.