Gaddafi accepts AU peace plan

Libya: Muammar Gaddafi has accepted a roadmap for ending the conflict in Libya including an immediate ceasefire, the African Union said on Monday, but an opposition representative said it would only work if Gaddafi left power.

South African President Jacob Zuma, who met Gaddafi at the head of a delegation of African leaders, urged NATO to stop air strikes on government targets to “give ceasefire a chance”. Earlier truce offers from Gaddafi have come to nothing and the rebels, who took up arms across the east and in some towns in the west after the Libyan leader crushed protests in February, have said they will accept nothing less than an end to his 41 year-old rule.

“The brother leader delegation has accepted the roadmap as presented by us. We have to give ceasefire a chance,” Zuma said, adding that the African delegation would now travel to the eastern city of Benghazi for talks with anti-Gaddafi rebels.

Asked if the issue of Gaddafi stepping down was discussed, Ramtane Lamamra, AU Commissioner for Peace and Security, told reporters: “There was some discussion.”

However he added: “I cannot report on confidential discussions because first of all I was not part of them, and I think they have to remain confidential between the parties involved.”

Officials from NATO, which stepped up attacks on Gaddafi’s armour on Sunday to weaken a bitter siege of Misrata in the west and disrupt an advance by his troops in the east, were not immediately available for comment on Zuma’s ceasefire appeal. The British-based representative of the Libyan opposition leadership, Guma al-Gamaty, said it would look carefully at the AU plan, but would not accept any deal designed to keep Gaddafi or his sons in place, Britain’s BBC reported. Libyan officials have repeatedly said Gaddafi will not quit.

Tripoli, Reuters