Gaddafi's son holds out offer of elections

Tripoli: Libya's Muammar Gaddafi is willing to hold elections and step aside if he lost, his son said on Thursday, an offer unlikely to placate his opponents but which could test the unity of the Western alliance trying to force him out.

The proposal, which follows a series of concessions, offered by the Libyan leader that Western powers have dismissed as ploys, comes at a time when frustration is mounting in some NATO states at the progress of the military campaign.

Four months into Libya's conflict, rebel advances towards Tripoli are slow at best, while weeks of NATO air strikes pounding Gaddafi's compound and other targets have failed to end his 41-year-old rule over the oil-producing country.

"They (elections) could be held within three months. At the maximum by the end of the year, and the guarantee of transparency could be the presence of international observers," Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

He said his father, who came to power in the same year that man first set foot on the moon, would be ready to step aside if he lost the election but would not go into exile.

"I have no doubt that the overwhelming majority of Libyans stand with my father and see the rebels as fanatical Islamist fundamentalists, terrorists stirred up from abroad," the newspaper quoted Saif al-Islam as saying.

The offer was made as Mikhail Margelov, the envoy leading Russia's efforts to end the conflict, arrived in Tripoli for talks with Gaddafi's government. The Kremlin has said it is ready to help negotiate the Libyan leader's departure.

Libyan officials took the Russian envoy, and foreign reporters, to a cafe in the centre of Tripoli which they said had been destroyed in a NATO air strike overnight.

"There is no justification for this attack," Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim told reporters, standing near the cafe. The building was a wreck of twisted metal and debris, and the dust from pulverised concrete coated the street.

Asked about the NATO bombing campaign, Kaim said, "It is not working and it will not work." Margelov did not comment.

The cafe is near the Libyan parliament building and other government buildings, in an area which has been bombed several times. A Tripoli resident, who did not want to be identified, said the cafe was frequented by government officials.

Adding to the pressure on NATO, Russia and China issued a joint declaration underling their concerns about the air strikes. The declaration was signed in Moscow by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao.

"To avoid further escalation of the violence it is necessary to provide for the meticulous adherence by all sides involved" to UN resolutions on Libya, the document said.

There was no immediate reaction to Saif al-Islam's offer of elections from the NATO military alliance or the rebels. They have said they will accept nothing less than Gaddafi's immediate departure.

Libya has never held elections under Gaddafi and has no elected institutions, so it was not clear what form the proposed vote would take.

Libya-watchers say Gaddafi is using his political skills, honed during decades when he was able to survive despite being an international pariah, to try to exploit divisions within the fragile Western alliance ranged against him.

NATO began air strikes on Tripoli after Gaddafi's troops used force to put down a rebellion against his rule in February. The Libyan leader has described the rebels as "rats" and says NATO's campaign is an act of colonial aggression aimed at stealing Libya's oil.

Gaddafi has been weakened by defections of senior officials, who include the foreign minister, the country's top energy official, and dozens of military officers.

Tunisia's state news agency reported that a boat had docked in southern Tunisia on Wednesday carrying 19 Libyan servicemen, including officers, who had fled the violence in their country.

Rebel forces are now fighting Gaddafi's troops on three fronts: in the east of the country around the oil town of Brega; on the edge of rebel-held Misrata, Libya's third-biggest city, and in the Western Mountains southwest of Tripoli.

Rebels in the Western Mountains said on Wednesday they had taken control of two villages from pro-Gaddafi forces, building on gains which in the past few days have seen them advance to within about 100 km (60 miles) of Tripoli.

But rebel forces show no signs of being able to break through to the capital soon. In the meantime, the strains of the operation -- which has now gone on for longer than its backers anticipated -- are showing within the NATO alliance.

NATO officials have said they may not have the resources for a sustained campaign, and Republicans in the US Congress have questioned the legal grounds for continued US involvement in the conflict in Libya.