Contact group on Libya to meet in Doha on April 13

London: Britain's Foreign Office says a contact group set up to guide the international intervention in Libya will meet in Qatar on April 13.

It was set up during international talks last week to be the political guide to the Nato-led military operation and humanitarian assistance mission in Libya.

In focus: Unrest in the Middle East

Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague will attend alongside about a dozen other Arab, European and international officials.

Top Libyans said to be very scared

Omar Fathi Bin Shatwan, who also served as industry minister, told the Associated Press that he had fled by fishing boat to Malta on Friday from the western Libyan city of Misrata.

Shatwan, who left the government in 2007, said he still had contact with some government figures and explained that many feared for their safety. In some cases, their families are under siege, he said.

"Those whose families are outside Libya will flee if they get a chance," Shatwan said. "But many can't leave, and all the families of ministers are under siege."

Shatwan said he had last contact with Gaddafi in 2006, and had not spoken with the tyrant's sons since leaving office. "Ministers who are friends of mine, I have spoken to them," he said.

The 59-year-old said he had spent 40 days at his home in Misrata before escaping from Libya, and witnessed Gaddafi's forces pounding the city with heavy artillery and relentlessly shooting civilians.

"There has been a big bombardment and there is total destruction," Shatwan said, speaking by telephone from Malta. "After this, they occupied some streets with tanks, and put snipers in the buildings."

He said Gaddafi's forces - which he said were mainly foreign mercenaries led by a small number of Libyans - had fired on civilians indiscriminately inside Misrata.

Shatwan described tanks rolling along the city's Tripoli Street - a major thoroughfare - and regime soldiers turning their weapons on anyone in the vicinity. "They have killed a lot of civilians, whether they are in cars, or are moving targets - they just shoot at them," he said.

He claimed that local people had been fired on as they attempted to rush to safety, and that regime soldiers had wildly discharged their weapons inside the city.