TRIPOLI/TUNIS (Reuters) – The chairman of Libya's National Oil Corporation has defected from Muammar Gaddafi's administration and fled to neighboring Tunisia, a Tunisian security source said on Tuesday.
Libyan rebels also said they had information that Shokri Ghanem, 68, had defected, a move that if confirmed would deal a blow to Gaddafi's efforts to shore up his 41-year rule.
"He is in a hotel with a group of other Libyan officials," the Tunisian source told Reuters. Another Tunisian security source said he was on his way to the capital Tunis.
A government official in Tripoli said there was no sign Ghanem had defected.
Rebels hold Benghazi and the oil-producing east of the North African country, helped by a NATO bombing campaign sanctioned at the United Nations to protect civilians from Gaddafi's forces.
But the military victory rebels once sought seems a distant prospect and many pin their hopes on a collapse of central power in Tripoli driven by defections and disaffection.
To that end, any defection by Ghanem could be significant. The oil chief is an internationally respected technocrat credited with liberalizing Libya's economy and energy sector.
He has been director of research at the OPEC secretariat in Vienna, economy and trade minister in Tripoli and prime minister.
Rebel finance and oil minister Ali Tarhouni told Reuters on a visit to Doha that he understood Ghanem had left his post.
Tarhouni said he hoped to represent Libya at an OPEC meeting in June. Libya is estimated to have lost two thirds of its oil output since the unrest began three months ago.
Rebels and Arab media reported on a previous occasion that the U.S.-educated Ghanem had stepped down but he appeared later and said he was in his office and working as usual.
MOSCOW TALKS
Russia hosted a representative of Gaddafi's government in Moscow on Tuesday and called on Tripoli to stop using force against civilians, comply fully with U.N. Security Council resolutions and withdraw armed groups from cities.
"The answer we heard cannot be called negative," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters. He suggested Gaddafi's government was making such steps conditional on NATO and rebels calling a halt to the use of force.
Libya was ready to look at peace proposals based on those suggested by the African Union and to comply with Security Council resolutions, he said.
"The only things that our interlocutors from Tripoli noted today was the necessity of the insurgents accepting analogous steps and that NATO also stop bombing," Lavrov said, adding that it remained to agree terms and a timeframe for a truce.
Both the rebels and Western nations have rejected past ceasefire proposals, saying the only deal they would accept was one under which Gaddafi relinquished power. The proposal set out by the Russian foreign minister made no mention of that.
The talks indicate Russia's desire to act as peacemaker and preserve its influence in Libya, where it has billions of dollars of arms, energy and infrastructure contracts.
In a Foreign Ministry statement issued later, Russia reiterated its call for a prompt ceasefire by all sides.
BORDER FIGHTING
NATO, which has been hitting targets in Libya for nearly two months, appeared to step up its bombing campaign on Monday.
British armed forces attacked a training base for bodyguards for Gaddafi's inner circle and intelligence buildings in the capital, the British Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
In central Tripoli, NATO airstrikes hit two buildings including one a Libyan spokesman said contained files detailing corruption cases against government officials who have defected.
Officials summoned reporters after the attack in the early hours to visit the two damaged buildings, which they said housed internal security forces and Libya's anti-corruption agency. One building was in flames.
Thousands have been killed in the conflict, the bloodiest revolt of what has been called the "Arab Spring" of protests that has removed autocratic leaders in Tunis and Cairo.
Libyan rebels virtually abandoned the Dehiba-Wazin border post on the frontier with southern Tunisia and at least three rebels were killed and many injured by Libyan government shellfire, a witness called Walid said on Tuesday.
At least four Russian-made Grad rockets fired from Libya landed inside Tunisia, a Reuters reporter at the scene said.
The crossing is on a supply route for rebels in Libya's Western Mountains and is an exit point for injured fighters.
"There are lots of injured crossing over in ambulances from the Libyan side. We were told that some people were killed as well," said a Reuters photographer at the border post.
(Reporting by Regan E. Doherty in Doha, Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow, Adrian Croft in London, Tarek Amara in Tunis and Anis Mili and Matt Robinson in Dehiba; writing by Matthew Bigg, editing by Tim Pearce)
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