New NATO strikes as Kadhafi says 'ready' for AU roadmap

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TRIPOLI: Nato launched air raids early Tuesday on Tripoli after visiting South African President Jacob Zuma said that Moamer Kadhafi is "ready" to implement an African Union plan to end the Libyan conflict.

Zuma, representing the African regional group, held talks Monday with the Libyan leader as Nato insisted that Kadhafi's "reign of terror" is nearing an end.

"He is ready to implement the road map of the AU," Zuma told journalists in comments broadcast on South African and Libyan television. It would begin with a ceasefire that must include a halt of Nato bombing, Zuma said.

But the South African mediator did not publicly discuss the key obstacle: Kadhafi's departure. The rebels have reiterated they'll accept no settlement that keeps Kadhafi in power.

Kadhafi insists that "all Libyans be given a chance to talk among themselves" to determine the country's future, Zuma said.

Libyan state television reported fresh Nato air raids overnight Monday to Tuesday against targets in Tripoli, the suburb of Tajura and Al-Jafra, a city to the south of the capital.

The report, on Jamahiriya TV, cited a military source as saying that "Nato colonialist crusaders" had targeted military and civilian sites in Tripoli and Tajura, causing deaths and damage.

Jamahiriya TV also said there had been air raids on civilian and military sites in the city of Al-Jafra, 600 kilometres (370 miles) south of the capital.

Zuma said that Nato raids were undermining African mediation efforts.

In Rome, meanwhile, five generals, two colonels and a major announced they had defected from Kadhafi's forces -- and also said the regime's army was now at 20-percent capacity.

Abdel Rahman Shalgham, a former foreign minister who was Tripoli's UN representative before switching sides, told a press conference:

Zuma arrived in Tripoli shortly after state media said Nato-led air strikes on the town of Zliten, west of the rebel-held city of Misrata, had killed 11 people.

The South African presidency said Zuma was seeking an immediate ceasefire, to boost humanitarian aid and bring about the reforms needed to eliminate the cause of the conflict which erupted amid anti-regime protests in mid-February.

At a meeting of Nato's parliamentary assembly in Bulgaria, Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen insisted: "Kadhafi's reign of terror is coming to an end.

In Rome, Libyan General Salah Giuma Yahmed said the ongoing defections meant Kadhafi's forces could no longer prop up the regime. (AFP)