Sep 08, 2011 at 14:48
TRIPOLI (AFP) - Moamer Kadhafi dismissed as lies Thursday reports he had fled to Niger, as the central bank said the fugitive ex-leader had sold more than 20 percent of the country's gold in his regime's dying days.
With remnants of Kadhafi's battered forces pinned down, Libya's new leadership and the United States called on neighbouring countries to close their borders to Kadhafi stalwarts.
The former leader, whose whereabouts are unknown, remained defiant in his first address for several days, telling his countrymen: "They have nothing else to resort to apart from psychological warfare and lies."
Speaking by telephone on the Damascus-based Arrai Oruba television channel, he added: "They last said Kadhafi had been seen in a convoy heading towards Niger.
"They want to weaken our morale. Do not waste time on this weak and ignoble enemy."
Kadhafi also said NATO, which has been carrying out daily air raids against his forces under a UN mandate since March 31, "will be defeated" as its "logistical capacities will not allow it" to press on.
"We are ready in Tripoli and everywhere to intensify attacks against the rats, the mercenaries, who are a pack of dogs," he said.
Since his Tripoli headquarters was overrun on August 23, Kadhafi has made several appeals for resistance in tapes aired by Arrai, which is run by former Iraqi Sunni MP Mishan al-Juburi.
Juburi, the only media personality able to contact Kadhafi since he went into hiding after forces of the National Transitional Council (NTC) took Tripoli, said the ex-leader and his son Seif al-Islam were still in Libya.
"I can tell you that I spoke with Kadhafi very recently," Juburi told AFP.
"He is in Libya, in very good spirits, feels strong, is not afraid, and would be happy to die fighting against the occupiers," Juburi said by phone.
"His son Seif al-Islam is in the same state of mind," added Juburi, whose channel has broadcast a number of audio messages from the Kadhafis.
The NTC fears Kadhafi will try to slip over one of Libya's borders, and Niger strongly denied he was in the country after a convoy carrying other senior ousted regime officials fled there on Monday.
The United States said Kadhafi was not believed to be among them.
In a bid to cut off Kadhafi's potential escape routes, the NTC said it had dispatched a team to the Niger capital Niamey, and the United States said Kadhafi aides who entered Niger were being detained.
None of those crossing into Niger earlier this week appeared to be on a list of persons subject to United Nations sanctions, said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.
"Our understanding is that the convoy included some military and senior officials under Kadhafi's former regime," she said. "They are now being held in the capital ... and they are being monitored closely by Nigerien officials."
Also, Washington "is in contact with Mali, Mauritania, Chad and Burkina Faso to emphasise the importance of respecting the UN Security Council resolutions and of securing their borders", Nuland said.
Niger Foreign Minister Mohammed Bazoum, attending a conference in Algiers, said neither Kadhafi nor any other wanted fugitives had arrived in his country.
Kadhafi could cross into Niger but "to go where? It doesn't make sense," Bazoum said, adding that if Kadhafi has "to roam, he would roam around Libya, not across Africa."
New regime forces, meanwhile, were poised to battle loyalist troops still holding out in the strongholds of Bani Walid, southeast of Tripoli; Sabha in the deep south and the coastal city of Sirte, Kadhafi's hometown.
In Brussels, NATO said it had hit a number of armoured fighting vehicles in the vicinity of Sirte on Wednesday and surface-to-air missile systems at the desert oasis of Waddan, 280 kilometres (175 miles) south of there.
Kadhafi's remaining forces have been given a Saturday deadline to surrender, in a bid to spare further bloodshed.
A pro-NTC commander at Rafa al-Jeibi, 150 kilometres northwest of Sirte, said: "We are awaiting the end of negotiations on Saturday. Until then, we won't move. We will defend ourselves if attacked, but that is all."
An AFP correspondent said the frontline west of Sirte had been calm for the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile, Libya's central bank governor claimed Kadhafi had sold a large chunk of the country's gold reserves in the dying days of his regime.
Qassem Azzoz said Kadhafi had sold 29 tonnes of gold, worth more than $1 billion, to local merchants and that it had probably made its way out of the country.
He also told a press conference in Tripoli that the bank's total assets stand at $115 billion, of which $90 billion is abroad.
And the International Energy Agency said the country's key oil exports are unlikely to return to their pre-war level before 2013.