Muammar Gaddafi's regime has launched efforts to open channels of communication with Western governments in an attempt to end the conflicts in that country, the British "Guardian" announced.
As the conflict continues in Libya, the country's former prime minister, Abdul Ati al-Obeidi, told Channel 4: "We are trying to negotiate with the British, French and Americans to stop the killing of people. We are trying to find a common solution."
Obeidi's announcement of increased efforts to reach out to Western governments came as opposition leaders in Benghazi, the de facto capital of the rebels, laid out their terms for a ceasefire.
Initiatives on both sides seem to indicate that a stalemate has emerged between the forces and that war weariness is growing.
Obeidi previously confirmed that a senior adviser to Gaddafi's influential son Saif al-Islam met with British officials yesterday in London, The Guardian revealed.
Mohamed Ismail is a key figure in the Libyan regime who was used by the Gaddafi family as a negotiator in arms deals and who has important contacts in the West.
There have also been reports that British officials have been conducting behind-the-scenes diplomacy in recent weeks and have been in contact with some Libyan officials, including Ismail, said a spokesman for David Cameron, who declined to give further details. "We are sending a very clear message to all of them, which is that Gaddafi must go."
The spokesman emphasized that Britain is not participating in negotiations on any possible barter aimed at securing Gaddafi's departure from power. "There are no details," he said.
The revelation of private conversations between Western officials and their Libyan counterparts, even as those same governments are bombing Libyan troops on the ground, comes after Gaddafi's top ally, former foreign minister and foreign minister Musa Kusa, fled to Britain this week.
Libyan rebels have offered a ceasefire on the condition that Gaddafi leaves Libya and his forces withdraw from cities now under government control, Reuters reported.
The conditions were announced by Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the leader of the opposition interim ruling council, based in Benghazi.
"We have nothing against a ceasefire, but on the condition that Libyans in Western cities get full freedom to express their views...Our main demand is the departure of Muammar Gaddafi and his sons from Libya.
It's a demand we won't give up on," Jalil said after a meeting with United Nations Special Envoy Abdelil al-Hatibset in Benghazi.
The BBC reported a statement from a Libyan doctor, who said coalition forces killed seven civilians, mostly children, and wounded another 25 near the oil town of Brega on Wednesday.
The doctor said he received a call from a village 15 km from Brega after a military convoy of Gaddafi forces was hit in the attacks. A trailer containing ammunition exploded between two houses, killing girls and boys between the ages of 12 and 20, the BBC reported yesterday. That report could not be confirmed.
Gaddafi's forces attacked the rebel-held western city of Misrata with tanks and artillery. A spokesman for the rebels said that civilians were killed in attacks by Libyan forces.
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