Spokesman: Gadhafi in Top Health, Planning Defense

Moammar Gadhafi is in top health and planning his country's defense, his spokesman said, as new regime fighters voiced concern over civilians trapped in the besieged town of Bani Walid.

While anti-Gadhafi fighters were poised to strike at the loyalist oasis town at the slightest hint of provocation, Gadhafi's spokesman Moussa Ibrahim insisted that the toppled leader was busy planning to re-take his country.

Gadhafi is "in excellent health and planning and organizing Libya's defense," Ibrahim told Syria's Arrai television channel on Monday.

"We are still powerful," he said, adding that the sons of the fugitive dictator "had assumed their role in the defense of and sacrifice for" their country. He however did not name them.

Pledging "a fight to the death or until victory," Ibrahim, who is thought to be in Bani Walid, said: "We will fight and resist for Libya and for all Arabs."

Branding the new rulers "NATO agents," he accused them of "committing crimes, above all rape, murder and looting."

He said: "Libya will never fall and the worthy tribes are defending and will continue to defend each of the free town and recapture those that have been raped."

But despite the brave show of face, a Nigerien government source said prominent regime officials had fled across the border.

They included Gadhafi's internal security chief Mansour Daw, who was earlier reported to be in Bani Walid with at least two of the fallen strongman's sons.

Kamal Hodeisa, a Libyan defense ministry official, told Agence France Presse in Tripoli that anti-Gadhafi fighters would "move if there is an act of aggression by Gadhafi's forces against our rebels inside Bani Walid or if they attack civilians.

"There is debate among rebels whether to go forward or to stay but I think in the end they will respect the deadline," he said, referring to a truce until September 10 to try to negotiate the surrender of the last Gadhafi strongholds.

Abdullah Kenshil, the chief negotiator for Libya's new government, said civilians were being held hostage in the center of the town, in administrative buildings and in five or six nearby villages.

"Gadhafi's soldiers have also closed the gates of the town and are not letting families leave," he said. "That worries us, we don't want to kill civilians in the attack."

Negotiations for the surrender of Bani Walid, southeast of Tripoli, broke down late Sunday but there was little movement on that front on Monday despite concerns that local families could be held as human shields.

Operational commander Abdulrazzak Naduri told journalists at Shishan, north of Bani Walid, that the National Transitional Council does not "want any more bloodshed."

Local officials said most senior figures had fled with Gadhafi's most prominent son, Seif al-Islam, who according to Naduri left a few days before for Sabha, further south, that is still in the hands of regime loyalists.

Two other sons of Gadhafi, Saadi and Mutassim, were also reported to be in Bani Walid and it is suspected that the strongman himself crossed through the oasis town although it is unclear when.

But Daw and some 10 others were on Monday in the northern Niger town of Agadez, having been brought across the border by a top Tuareg leader allied to Gadhafi, Tuareg sources said.

No clashes were reported on Monday in Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte or the southern oases of Sabha and Al-Jufra.