? Libyan envoy in Greece with message from Muammar Gaddafi
? RAF air chief tells Guardian Libya op could last months
? One Al-Jazeera reporter released by pro-Gaddafi forces
? Follow live updates
In Tripoli, there is little evidence of the civil war that is raging further to the east, Harriet Sherwood writes.
On the drive from the Tunisian border to the capital on Sunday, there were numerous Libyan army checkpoints manned by soldiers wearing the ubiquitous loyalist green bandanas and scarves, but almost nothing in the way of bomb-damaged buildings.
Most striking were huge queues at gas stations, often stretching back several hundred metres, sometimes two or three cars wide. As well as motorists, Libyans are queuing on foot with jerry cans and plastic containers. The country has long been awash with fuel; now many gas stations are closed.
Tripoli itself seems relatively normal, although foreign journalists are highly restricted in their movements it is hard to get a full picture. Yesterday a group was taken to visit the command centre of the Great Man-Made River Project (GMMRP), Libya's 4,000-km underground network of water pipelines, which supplies 70% of the population with water for consumption and agriculture. Abdel Majid Ghaud, the chairman of the People's Committee for the GMMRP, warned of a potential humanitarian and environmental catastrophe if the pipeline was hit by coalition airstrikes.
But there has been no damage so far, and there is no indication that the coalition would target civilian water supplies. Asked if the pipelines were also at risk from Libyan military shelling, Ghaud insisted that only coalition attacks presented a danger.
There have been no government briefings at the Rixos Hotel, the main base for the foreign media in Tripoli, since Friday. Journalists have been told to present their visas for inspection amid speculation that the authorities are keen to reduce the media presence in the capital. It's almost impossible to leave the Rixos without a government minder, information is scarce, and the atmosphere is one of frustration fuelled by rumour and speculation.
More on Italy's foreign minister, Franco Frattini. He said proposals by a Libyan envoy to end the crisis in Libya are "not credible" because nothing was said about the departure of Muammar Gaddafi.
Abdul Ati al-Obeidi, an envoy of Gaddafi, told Greece's prime minister on Sunday that the Libyan leader was seeking a way out of the crisis.
But Frattini said this afternoon that the proposals were not credible because the departure of Gadhafi is a "pre-condition" to any settlement.
The New York Times has an interesting piece today on how the rebel leadership in Libya is "showing strain" after the series of reverses they suffered last week.
With the rebels' battlefield fortunes sagging, the three men in charge of the Libyan opposition forces were summoned late last week by the ad-hoc leadership of their movement to a series of meetings here in the rebel capital.
The rebel army's nominal leader, Abdul Fattah Younes, a former interior minister and friend of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi whom many rebel leaders distrusted, could offer little explanation for the recent military stumbles, two people with knowledge of the meetings said.
Making matters worse, the men could hardly stand one another. They included Khalifa Heftar, a former general who returned recently from exile in the United States and appointed himself as the rebel field commander, the movement's leaders said, and Omar el-Hariri, a former political prisoner who occupied the largely ceremonial role of defense minister.
"They behaved like children," said Fathi Baja, a political science professor who heads the rebel political committee.
Little was accomplished in the meetings, the participants said. When they concluded late last week, Mr. Younes was still the head of the army and Mr. Hariri remained as the defense minister. Only Mr. Heftar, who reportedly refused to work with Mr. Younes, was forced out. On Sunday, though, in a sign that divisions persisted, Mr. Heftar's son said his father was still an army leader.
The Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini, speaking at a press conference, has said the proposals made by Gaddafi's envoy, Abdul Ati al-Obeidi, in Greece are "not credible". We'll have his full comments shortly.
Will Gaddafi be ousted by a palace coup? asks Middle East analyst Daniel Serwer, from the US Institute of Peace, and Eric Davis from Rutgers University.
Davis tells Bloggingheads TV: "We are looking at a very long drawn out conflict ... The air power is not really going to be able put an end to Gaddafi's armed forces. And the rebels aren't going to be able to do that, so we are going to have stalemate for some time and that could lead to some messy problems."
Serwer, a former US envoy to Bosnia, says: "What we need is for the non-Gaddafi part of the regime, that is the non-Gaddifi family, to read him the riot act and tell him to get the hell out of there so they can save their own skins. That is actually preferable, it seems to me, to what they have been doing which is defecting here and there. Much better that they sort out the situation while they are still in the country."
Libyan rebels have pushed into the strategic oil town of Brega, Associated Press reports.
Brega has been the site of fighting during weeks of back-and-forth battling along Libya's eastern coast.
"The rebels, backed by airstrikes, have been making incremental advances. On Monday, the town was under rebel control," AP said.
Here's an image of injured Libyans on board the Turkish ship Ankara, which collected 250 wounded people from Misrata yesterday.
Greece foreign minister Dimitris Droutsas's full statement following Libyan envoy Abdulati Al-Obeidi's arrival has been posted onto the Greek foreign ministry website.
Here it is in full:
We have had a series of meetings in recent days on the developments in Libya. Among other things, the Prime Minister spoke to his Libyan counterpart, and out of that conversation came the sending of a special envoy here to Athens, whom we received today within this framework, which we have stressed, as Greece, from the very outset: the efforts toward a political, diplomatic solution in Libya must be continued.
This envoy, as I have been informed, will continue his meetings tomorrow in Turkey and then in Malta.
We stressed ? reiterated ? the international community's clear message: full respect for the implementation of the UN Resolutions, an immediate ceasefire and an end to the violence and hostilities, particularly against the civilian population in Libya.
From what the Libyan envoy said, it appears that the regime is also seeking a solution.
There needs to be a serious effort for peace and stability in the region. Greece will continue in this effort to offer its good offices.
We are in contact with all our partners and allies and we will brief them on today's meetings and on Greece's thoughts and proposals.
Thank you.
LibyaFeb17.com has posted some photographs from inside the ship carrying Misrata wounded to Turkey.
A Turkish ship rescued 250 wounded from the besieged Libyan city of Misrata on Sunday, but left behind thousands of people pleading to be evacuated, Reuters reports.
Misrata is the last major rebel-held city in western Libya, and is surrounded by government troops after rising up against Gaddafi in mid-February. "It is very, very bad. In my street, Gaddafi bombed us," Ibrahim al-Aradi, 26, who had wounds in his groin, told the press agency.
"We have no water, no electricity. We don't have medicine. There are snipers everywhere," he said.
Others spoke of Gaddafi's forces bombing mosques and houses.
"When Gaddafi's men hear the NATO planes they hide in houses and mosques. When the planes are gone they destroy them," said Mustafa Suleiman, a 30-year-old computer engineer.
"Even the big supermarket was destroyed. Some of my friends were killed. We have no vegetables, no fruit, only bread. Gaddafi wants to kill Misrata by fighting and starvation," Suleiman said.
Guarded by heavily armed Turkish police special forces, wounded men of all ages lay on mattresses on one of the car decks of the ship, a white car ferry called the Ankara chartered by the Turkish government.
They had wounds in all parts of their bodies, and were being attended by Turkish medics.
Hamen, a Libyan doctor who was accompanying the men, said: "Misrata is terrible. I have seen terrible things. Thirty people killed in one day. These are my patients. I must stay with them but I want to go back."
Good morning, welcome to the Guardian's live coverage of the ongoing situation in Libya.
? Harriet Sherwood, Ian Black and Patrick Wintour: Libya's deputy foreign minister, Abdul Ati al-Obeidi, flew to Greece yesterday, apparently with a message from the Libyan government seeking a way out of the crisis. After meeting Obeidi Greece's foreign minister, Dimitris Droustas said: "From the Libyan envoy's comments it appears that the regime is seeking a solution." Droustas added that Greek officials had underlined the international community's call for Gaddafi to end hostilities. The message, Droustas said, was: "Full respect and implementation of United Nations decisions, an immediate ceasefire, an end to violence and hostilities, particularly against the civilian population of Libya."
? Nick Hopkins: The head of the RAF has issued a blunt warning that the service will need "genuine increases" in its budget over the coming years if it is to continue running the range of operations ministers demand. In an interview with the Guardian, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton also said the RAF was planning to continue operations over Libya for at least six months. His assumption is that planes will be needed "for a number of months rather than a number of days or weeks".
? The Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera says one of the network's four reporters who were captured in Libya last month by pro-Gaddafi forces has been released. Three others remain held. In a statement emailed to Associated Press on Monday, al-Jazeera says the journalist who has been released is Lotfi al-Massoudi of Tunisia. The four journalists from the Qatar-based network were captured in the western Libya 27 days ago, the statement says.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/apr/04/libya-gaddafi-envoy-live-updates
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