Former prime minister calls for dialogue

Tripoli: Mohammad Suwaid is an unlikely revolutionary against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi.

Until a few weeks ago he was a high-ranking government official in the city of Misurata, the man in charge of overseeing the affairs of the foreigners who lived there. But in the midst of the uprising that has torn Libya in half and established Misurata as one of two rebel strongholds in the country's western half, Suwaid has become a leader of an armed rebellion.

"We want democracy," he said in a telephone interview on Monday from his besieged city of half a million people.

"We want the end of Gaddafi. We want the fall of the regime. We want justice. We want the end of corruption. Gaddafi has left us no choice. Only war."

Appeal

Suwaid's comments came after former Libyan prime minister Jadallah Azzuz Talhi appealed for dialogue with government opponents during an appearance on state-controlled television.

Talhi, who served as Libya's prime minister in the 1980s, hails from the eastern provinces, which include the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

Tribal leaders in the rebel-controlled areas should "give a chance to national dialogue to resolve this crisis, to help stop the bloodshed, and not give a chance to foreigners to come and capture our country again", Talhi said, according to Reuters news agency.

Suwaid and other rebels quickly dismissed the appeals for any dialogue while Gaddafi remained in power.

‘Fight until the last man'

"It's too late to make a dialogue," he said.

"Dialogue is dead. At the beginning our movement was peaceful. Now they've killed our children. Now the only solution is violence. We are going to fight until the last man."

Many rebels doubt the sincerity of the Libyan regime's offer of dialogue.

Gaddafi and his deputies have described his opponents as drug-addled terrorists in league with Al Qaida and the CIA.