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Regime in contact with rebels: Libya PM

Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi al-Mahmudi said Muammar Gaddafi's regime was in contact with rebels as the Colonel vows to continue fighting NATO.

Baghdadi al-Mahmudi_20110618_b_aap_1377988712

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Source: AFP


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Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi al-Mahmudi Friday said Muammar Gaddafi's regime was in contact with rebels, who have denied being engaged in negotiations with Tripoli.

"Our doors are open to all and we are in contact with all the parties," he told a news conference. "We are sure meetings have taken place" in Egypt, France, Norway and Tunisia, and we "can name the persons," who attended from the rebels' side.

"Ask the Egyptians, French, Norwegians and Tunisians for information. They will tell you the truth," he said. "We are sure of our meetings and everything has been recorded."

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Earlier Friday, Mahmud Jibril, the head of international affairs in the rebel National Transitional Council, said in Italy: "I can assure you there is and there was no negotiation between the NTC and the regime."

The Libyan prime minister also accused NATO of commiting "war crimes and crimes against humanity."

In the past three days the Alliance had stepped up its aggression "directly targetting civilian sites," with a university and hotel in Tripoli hit on Friday, he said.

He called for "an urgent meeting" of the United Nations to examines "these crimes committed by NATO against Libyan civilians."

Mahmudi denied accusations that government forces were committing mass rape.

"Neither our morals nor our religion permit it," he stressed.

Russian envoy Mikhail Margelov, speaking one day after visiting Tripoli, had declared that the Kadhafi's camp had forged multiple contacts with the Libyan opposition in a number of European capitals.

Margelov, who held talks with the rebels in their Benghazi stronghold last week, said Friday that representatives of the Libyan strongman had made contact with the rebels in European capitals including Berlin, Paris and Oslo.


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