The International Criminal Court is likely to issue an arrest warrant for Muammar Gaddafi by the end of the month, ANSA news agency quoted Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini as saying Thursday.
"At the end of the month, when in all probability the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court will issue arrest warrants against Colonel Gaddafi and certain members of his regime, perhaps members of his family," the minister said about the likely end date for Italy's military mission in that country.
Frattini was speaking in Cagliari, Sardinia, during the campaign for local elections to be held on Sunday and Monday.
Italy joined NATO-led air strikes in Libya at the end of April.
The ICC stressed that its prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, had to ask the court's judges to issue any warrants.
"For judges to issue a warrant of arrest the prosecutor needs to have made a request, which he has not made yet," said spokeswoman Florence Olara.
Frattini said Gaddafi had only until the end of the month to make his exit, by going into exile for example, because an arrest warrant would change his position.
"It is clear that after the issuing of an arrest warrant, the international community will have a legal obligation ... to pursue Gaddafi, like we did with (Yugoslav ex-president Slobodan) Milosevic and (Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko) Mladic" who were both hauled before a UN court, he said.
Moreno-Ocampo said last week that Gaddafi's regime was murdering and persecuting civilians, and that he would seek arrest warrants for three people he did not name.
"Widespread and systematic attacks against the civilian population have been and continue to be committed in Libya, including murder and persecution, as crimes against humanity," he said.
Saying he had witnesses, videos and photos to back his case, the prosecutor promised to request "arrest warrants against three individuals who appear to bear the greatest criminal responsibility for crimes against humanity" in Libya.
Diplomats have said Gaddafi is likely to be on the first list of warrants.
The ICC prosecutor said he was also investigating the deaths of dozens of sub-Saharan Africans in the rebel bastion of Benghazi by an "angry mob" who believed they were mercenaries in Gaddafi's pay.
Rebels have been fighting Gaddafi loyalists since the regime violently put down pro-reform protests in mid-February.
NATO-led air strikes on Thursday hit Muammar Gaddafi's compound, killing three people, the Libyan regime said, as rebels celebrated the capture of Misrata airport and fresh diplomatic coups in the West.
