Libyan forces failed to convince Muammar Qadhafi loyalists on Sunday to give up one of their last strongholds without a fight, raising the prospect of an assault on the town of Bani Walid. Outside the desert town, a National Transitional Council (NTC) negotiator said talks were over.
"As chief negotiator, I have nothing to offer right now. From my side, negotiations are finished," Abdallah Kanshil, a negotiator for the interim council said at a checkpoint some 60 km (38 miles) outside Bani Walid.
"We will leave this for the field commanders to decide, for the NTC to decide what to do next. I urge Gaddafi people to leave the town alone."
He said all NTC proposals put forward on Sunday were rejected. "They said they don't want to talk, they are threatening everyone who moves. They are putting snipers on high rise buildings and inside olive groves, they have a big fire force. We compromised a lot at the last minute," he said.
Earlier on Sunday NTC negotiator Abdul Azil said Nato-backed NTC forces were just 10 km from Bani Walid and inching forward, ready to attack what he said were an estimated 100 pro-Qadhafi fighters there if necessary.
"We are waiting for the order for our commanders to go into the city. We have told them we are coming. Everyone should stay at home. Hopefully it will be done without bloodshed," he said, as warplanes of the Western alliance roared overhead.
In Tripoli, life was returning to normal after last month's fighting and last week's Muslim holiday. Traffic was heavy as fuel supplies improved. Cafes were busy and offices opened.
NTC officials announced plans to bring their heavily-armed fighters under control and try to integrate thousands of them into the police force and find jobs for others.
"We only need the revolutionaries for the first month. We have a plan we will announce today to include 3,000 of the revolutionaries in the interior ministry who will be trained and will work in national security," interim Interior Minister Ahmad Darat told reporters.
"The rest of them work in business or are builders etc - they don't want to be in the police. They will give up their weapons. It's just a matter of time and organisation."
Officials said there would also be retraining and reintegration schemes for those who fought for Qadhafi.
The disintegration of Qadhafi's rule after a six-month war has left a security vacuum in Libya, with no state security forces, rebel fighters who are not part of any formal structure and huge quantities of unsecured weapons.
The proliferation of weapons in Libya is a serious issue and the new rulers need to establish a proper police force and army to replace the hundreds of armed groups who patrol the streets, the United Nations Secretary-General's special adviser on Libya said.
"Proliferation of weapons is a major concern," the adviser, Ian Martin, said on a visit to Tripoli.
"It's a matter of moving from the current situation in which there are many people with weapons who are fighting in this conflict to one where there is a single public security force and the kind of proper state army that didn't exist in Libya in the past," he told Reuters in an interview.
Anti-Qadhafi forces have also closed in on the deposed leader's birthplace in the coastal city of Sirte, but appear ready to allow more time for negotiations there.
"With God's grace, we are in a position of strength. We can enter any city ... but because of our care and desire to prevent bloodshed and avoid more destruction to national institutions we have given a period of one week," NTC chairman Mustafa Abdel Aziz said in the eastern city of Benghazi on Saturday.
"This is an opportunity for these cities to announce their peaceful joining of the revolution," he said.
A spokesman for Qadhafi, who has been in hiding since his foes seized Tripoli on August 23, has dismissed talk of surrender and said powerful tribal leaders were still loyal to him.
"He's in the country," Moussa Ibrahim told Reuters on Friday in a call from an undisclosed location. "He's in a safe place surrounded by many people who are prepared to protect him."
Ibrahim, who said he did not know exactly where Qadhafi was, dismissed suggestions that Bani Walid was ready to surrender. He said he himself had been moving around a "southern suburb of Tripoli" with Qadhafi's son and heir-apparent Saif al-Islam.
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