Is regime scouting for a way out?

London: Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's regi me has sent one of its most trusted envoys to London for confidential talks with British officials.

Mohammad Esmail, a senior aide to Gaddafi's son Saif Al Islam, visited London in recent days, British government sources familiar with the meeting have confirmed.

The contacts with Esmail are believed to have been one of many between Libyan officials and the West in the last fortnight, amid signs that the regime may be looking for an exit strategy.

Disclosure of Esmail's visit comes in the immediate aftermath of the defection to Britain of Mousa Koussa, Libya's foreign minister and the country's former external intelligence head, who has been Britain's main conduit to the Gaddafi regime since the early 1990s.

A team led by the British ambassador to Libya, Richard Northern, and intelligence officers, embarked on a lengthy debriefing of Koussa at a safe house after he flew into Farnborough airport on Wednesday night from Tunisia. Government sources said the questioning would take time because Koussa's state of mind was "delicate" after he left his family in Libya. The Foreign Office declined "to provide a running commentary" on contacts with Esmail or other regime officials. But news of the meeting comes amid mounting speculation that Gaddafi's sons, foremost among them Saif Al Islam, Sa'adi and Mutassim, are anxious to explore a way out of the crisis in Libya.

"There has been increasing evidence recently that the sons want a way out," said a western diplomatic source.

Although he has little public profile in either Libya or internationally, Esmail is recognised by diplomats as being a key fixer and representative for Saif Al Islam.

According to cables published by WikiLeaks, Esmail has represented the Libyan government in arms purchase negotiations and acted as an interlocutor on military and political issues.

"The message that was delivered to him is that Gaddafi has to go and that there will be accountability for crimes committed at the international criminal court," a Foreign Office spokesman told the Guardian, declining to elaborate on what else may have been discussed.

Some aides working for Gaddafi's sons, however, have made it clear that it may be necessary to sideline their father and explore exit strategies to prevent the country descending into anarchy.

One idea that the sons have reportedly suggested which the Guardian has been unable to corroborate is that Gaddafi give up real power. Mutassim, presently the country's national security adviser, would become president of an interim national unity government which would include the country's opposition.

It is an idea, however, unlikely to find support among the rebels or the international community who are demanding Gaddafi's removal.