Dubai - Libya's rebel National Transitional Council wants to represent the oil-rich country at June's OPEC meeting, spokesman Mahmud Shammam told AFP on Wednesday, amid reports the oil minister has defected.
“We want to attend, and will study the legal procedure,” said Shammam, media spokesman for the TNC.
“We still do not know if OPEC will invite us,” he said.
Oil Minister Shukri Ghanem, a veteran of Colonel Moamer Kadhafi's regime, at the weekend crossed from Libya into neighbouring Tunisia, a Tunisian official told AFP, though it was not clear if he defected from the autocratic regime that is battling a NATO-backed rebellion.
Ghanem had been due to travel to Vienna for the next meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries on June 8. - Sapa-AFP