Embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is either in southern Tripoli or has already fled to the desert, his defected former prime minister Abdessalam Jalloud said Thursday.

"He has only four people left around him. There are two possibilities: either he is hiding in the southern part of Tripoli or he left some time ago," Jalloud, who fled Tripoli and has been in Italy since Saturday, told a press conference.

Russia stressed on Thursday it was important that the U.N. Security Council play a "leading role" in post-Gadhafi Libya as the six-month rebellion against its old ally appeared to be drawing to an end.

The Russian foreign ministry said Russia's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon had earlier in the day discussed global assistance to Libya's transition following the ouster of Moammar Gadhafi.

A U.N. humanitarian team ended Thursday an inspection mission to Syria even though security forces are still using "excessive and lethal force" against demonstrators, officials said.

The team, which President Bashar al-Assad let into Syria last weekend after months of U.N. pressure, went to Damascus, Homs, Banias, Latakia, Hama, Aleppo and Idlib, said U.N. under secretary general B. Lynn Pascoe.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi called in an audio message on Thursday for an armed struggle to defeat the "enemies" and to "liberate Tripoli."

In the message, broadcast on Syria-based Arrai Oruba television, he said, "We must resist these enemy rats, who will be defeated thanks to the armed struggle."

Libyan rebel body, the National Transitional Council, will represent the North African state in the Arab League, the secretary general of the League Nabil al-Arabi said on Thursday.

"There was an agreement among Arab countries at the last meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Doha that it is time for Libya to get its seat on the Arab League and that the NTC of Libya is the only legitimate representative of the Libyan state to the league," Nabil al-Arabi said.

NATO insisted Thursday it was not targeting Moammar Gadhafi or coordinating with Libyan rebels, after Britain's defense secretary said the alliance was helping to hunt down the elusive leader.

"No specific individual is a target as an individual, whether it's Gadhafi or anybody else," NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu told Agence France Presse when asked about British Defense Secretary Liam Fox's comments that the alliance was providing intelligence and reconnaissance assets in the search for Gadhafi.

A senior Syrian general who was assassinated in 2008 was most likely the victim of a power struggle between figures linked to Bashar al-Assad's regime, France told U.S. envoys at the time.

According to a U.S. diplomatic cable published online by the whistle-blower site WikiLeaks, a senior adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy and an expert from the foreign ministry branded the killing a "mafia-like hit".

Four Italian journalists kidnapped in Libya on Wednesday by forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi, have been freed, the foreign ministry said in Rome.

"I'm alive and kicking," Domenico Quirico told his colleagues at La Stampa newspaper by phone, confirming he had been freed along with two reporters for Italy's top daily, Corriere della Sera and one for Avvenire, a Catholic paper.

Hardened fighters streamed Thursday into Tripoli as Libya's rebels sought to deliver a knockout punch to Moammar Gadhafi's diehards and, backed by NATO, to flush out the elusive strongman.

Hundreds of rebel fighters on Thursday launched an attack on a Tripoli hideout of forces and snipers loyal to Gadhafi, an AFP TV reporter said.

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani is expected Thursday night in Tehran for talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an official told Agence France Presse, without providing further details.

It marks the first visit to Tehran by one of the leaders of Gulf monarchies following the political crisis in the tiny kingdom of Bahrain.