Tripoli - Libya's rebels on Friday announced the transfer of their leadership to Tripoli from their Benghazi base, boosted by a United Nations decision to release millions of dollars of cash aid within days.
“I declare the beginning and assumption of the executive committee's work in Tripoli,” Ali Tahuni, a senior official of the rebel National Transitional Council, told a press conference in the capital.
“Long live democratic and constitutional Libya and glory to our martyrs,” he said, announcing the holders of key posts in a new provisional government.
Tahuni, the executive committee's vice-chairperson and minister of oil and economics, said NTC head Mustafa Abdel Jalil would arrive in Tripoli as soon as the security situation permitted.
At the same time the UN Security Council released $1.5-billion of seized Libyan assets to be used for emergency aid after the United States and South Africa ended a dispute over the money.
The assets were frozen in US banks, but South Africa had blocked the release on the UN Security Council's sanctions committee, saying it would imply recognition of the NTC.
The last-minute accord with South Africa meant that the United States did not press for a Security Council vote. A new request was immediately made and approved by the Libya sanctions committee, diplomats said.
“The money will be moving within days,” a US diplomat said.
The new request made no mention of the NTC, only that the money would be directed through the “relevant authorities”.
Washington said on Thursday that the money would pay for UN programmes, energy bills, health, education and food, and would not be used for any “military purposes”.
Earlier a senior rebel official said diplomats of the Contact Group on Libya had agreed in Istanbul to speed up the release of $2.5-billion in frozen Libyan assets by the middle of next week.
In Milan, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Rome would release next week 350-million euros frozen in Italian banks.
The rebels' dependence on foreign aid was underscored on Thursday when the head of Italian energy group ENI said restarting oil production in Libya may take from six to 18 months.
The announcements came less than three days after rebel forces swarmed into Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi’s sprawling compound in the centre of the capital, defeating his fighters in fierce clashes and seizing control of most of the city.
But Gaddafi was nowhere to be found and on Thursday he broadcast a new audio calling on the populace to take up arms.
Gaddafi, who has a $1.7-million price on his head, said: “We must resist these enemy rats, who will be defeated thanks to the armed struggle.”
“Leave your homes and liberate Tripoli,” he added in the message broadcast from an unknown location on a Syria-based television station, Arrai Oruba.
Addressing the youth of the capital, he said: “Fight them street by street, alley by alley, house to house. With rifles and pistols they will be annihilated.”
“Do not fear them, fear only God,” he said, telling them not to fear bombardment by Nato warplanes. “They are just sound bombs.”
Gaddafi's audio message came as Abdel Jalil gave the grim assessment that more than 20 000 people had been killed in the drive since mid-February to end the strongman's 42-year, iron-fisted rule.
Half of the NTC members arrived on Thursday in Tripoli to begin a transition to the post-Gaddafi era, while a rebel offensive largely cleared the strongly loyalist district of Abu Slim after fierce fighting.
“Half of the government is here, and today we have had meetings with the military leadership,” NTC spokesperson Mahmud Shamman told AFP, as rebel fighters continued to look for the elusive strongman.
Abdel Jalil for his part said that countries which had helped the rebel cause would be rewarded accordingly.
“We promise to favour the countries which helped us, especially in the development of Libya. We will deal with them according to the support which they gave us,” he told a news conference in Benghazi.
Beyond Tripoli, rebel commanders said they were also readying a new advance against forces defending Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte, 360km east of Tripoli, and seeking to break a siege of Zuwarah, a town to the west.
The Facebook page of the Gaddafi regime's television station, which went off the air on Monday, said Nato warplanes had attacked Sirte, but gave no details.
British Defence Minister Liam Fox said Nato was helping the rebels with intelligence and reconnaissance to find Gaddafi, but the Western alliance denied his claim.
However, an AFP reporter discovered that French and British operatives are working with rebels as they press towards Sirte, amid unconfirmed reports British special forces SAS members were sent to Libya several weeks ago.
The rebels are hell-bent on finding Gaddafi, so they can proclaim final victory in an uprising that began six months ago and was all but crushed by Gaddafi's forces before Nato warplanes gave crucial air support to the rebels.
Rebel leaders say they want to put Gaddafi on trial even though he also faces charges of crimes against humanity along with his son Seif al-Islam and spymaster Abdullah al-Senussi at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
On Wednesday, the NTC offered a $1.7-million reward for the capture of Gaddafi, dead or alive, and amnesty to any members of his inner circle who kill or capture him.
Meanwhile, foreign workers were evacuated late on Thursday on the first International Organisation for Migration boat to dock in war-torn Tripoli.
The boat, which waited offshore for two nights for the security situation to improve as the battle for Tripoli raged, was taking out Filipinos, Egyptians, Canadians, Algerians and Moroccans.
Martin Jerrett, IOM head of office in Benghazi from where the ship's passengers will travel on to Cairo and elsewhere, said the aim was to spread the message that foreigners could get out. - Sapa-AFP