Libyans show film of Gaddafi's son 'to prove he's still alive'

Libyan state television has broadcast images of a man it said was Muammar Gaddafi's youngest son, in an attempt to refute rebel claims he had been killed in a Nato air strike.

Rebels said last Friday that Khamis Gaddafi, 27, who commands one of the best-trained and equipped units in the Libyan military, had been killed in the western front-line town of Zlitan. The regime dismissed the claim and said the rebels were only trying to deflect attention from the killing last week of the opposition's military commander, possibly by other rebels.

The TV images showed the young Gaddafi at a Tripoli hospital visiting people wounded in a Nato air strike and said they had been filmed on Tuesday. If genuine, it would be the first time he has been seen in public since the reports of his death.

State TV also showed the funerals of dozens of civilians it said had died in another Nato air strike on Tuesday in Zlitan, a main front for the rebels fighting Gaddafi's troops. It is about 90 miles south-east of Tripoli.

The channel has been airing images in black and white to honour a three-day mourning period for the 85 people the government said lost their lives in Zlitan.

More than 200 people gathered around about 40 coffins set on the ground in a cemetery under the shadows of palm trees. Someone with a loudspeaker delivered a speech while the crowd interrupted him with calls of "Allahu Akbar" - Arabic for God is Great.

A day earlier, state TV ran images of Libyans rummaging through the rubble of buildings the government said had been destroyed by the air strike.

In Brussels, Nato said the Libyan claims of deaths among civilians as "unfounded allegations".

"We stand by our conviction that this was a military target," said an official. "Careful planning went into the strike to make sure that civilians would not be harmed."