Libyan fighters raised the new government's flag over the oasis of Bani Walid Monday and hoped for the swift fall of the other remaining redoubt of Moammar Gadhafi loyalists, Sirte, as relatives of his henchmen fled.

Cries of Allahu Akhbar (God is Greatest) and bursts of celebratory machinegun fire filled the desert air over the centre of Bani Walid, as the new regime troops feted their capture of the loyalist bastion after a six-week siege.

Seventeen fighters of Libya's new regime were killed and 50 wounded in clashes with Moammar Gadhafi loyalists in the desert town of Bani Walid, a military official in Tripoli said on Monday.

"We lost 17 fighters in fierce clashes on Sunday and our forces have withdrawn from the airport where they had taken control," said Salem Gheith, head of the National Transitional Council (NTC) military command center.

Forces of Libya's new rulers said they took control on Sunday of the airport in Bani Walid, one of the last two bastions of fighters loyal to deposed despot Moammar Gadhafi.

"Our forces have taken control of the airport of Bani Walid," located in the desert town's southwest, Yunes Mussa, commander of the National Transitional Council forces in the region, told Agence France Presse.

Fighting has claimed the lives of 30 interim government fighters in the campaign to capture the Gadhafi bastion of Bani Walid southeast of the Libyan capital, Dr. Mabruk Kernaf said on Saturday.

The National Transitional Council's northern front commander said another 50 had been wounded.

Turkey Saturday was parachuting in 22 tons of humanitarian aid to the Libyan city of Bani Walid, one of the last holdouts of fallen leader Moammar Gadhafi's supporters, the prime minister's office said.

Two military cargo planes left Ankara on Saturday to bring food to around 10,000 people in Bani Walid in need of urgent help, the office said in a statement on its website.

Fighters loyal to Libya's new leaders on Friday thrust deep into the city of Sirte and into desert oasis Bani Walid, two of fugitive Moammar Gadhafi’s few remaining bastions, Agence France Presse reporters said.

On the political front, officials in Tripoli said a new transitional government would be announced on Sunday, while the U.N. General Assembly gave Libya's U.N. seat to the former rebel National Transitional Council.

Libya's new authorities resumed talks on Tuesday with local leaders in Bani Walid, one of the last bastions of Moammar Gadhafi, bidding to end a tense standoff over the oasis town.

Negotiations for the peaceful surrender of Bani Walid, which anti-Gadhafi fighters encircled last week, had collapsed Sunday, and the latest talks were aimed at reassuring Warfalla tribesmen, elders and the local community.

Libyan fighters have given forces in Bani Walid until 08:00 GMT Sunday to surrender, a commander said, adding Moammar Gadhafi's son Saadi was still there but another, Seif al-Islam, had fled.

"The revolutionaries have given an ultimatum to the tribal chiefs in Bani Walid," Abdulrazzak Naduri, deputy chief of the military council in Tarhuna, told AFP.