Gaddafi's wife and daughter 'cross border into Tunisia'

Safia Gaddafi and daughter Aisha, who has made a string of public appearances backing her father and attacking rebels trying to overthrow him, were said to have travelled with a Libyan delegation on 14 May.

The news emerged as Libya's rebel government raised hopes of representing the country at the next meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) in June, capitalising on the apparent desertion by Col Gaddafi's oil minister to Tunisia earlier this week.

Jalal Gallal, a spokesman for the rebel National Transitional Council, said yesterday the group had sent a request to Opec to allow it to represent Libya at the oil bloc's next meeting.

Meetings of Opec's 12-country council were generally attended by Col Gaddafi's respected oil minister, Shukri Ghanem.

However, he was reported to have defected and fled to Tunisia. Mr Ghanem was also head of Libya's National Oil Company.

The rebels have declined to comment on Mr Ghanem's flight until he announces whether he backs their cause.

There is no suggestion that Col Gaddafi's wife and daughter are with Mr Ghanem.

Reports last night said Tunisian officials would arrest any members of the Gaddafi family should they be found in the country, due to the UN-imposed travel ban. The Tunisian Interior Ministry denied the pair were in the country.

Libya, which once produced about 1.6 million barrels per day of crude, is now pumping just a trickle of that volume. The fighting, attacks by Gaddafi forces, a Nato-enforced no-fly zone and partial naval blockade have limited exports and imports.

In April, the Gulf state of Qatar helped the rebels complete the sale of one million barrels of crude that netted roughly $129 million for the anti-Gaddafi forces. The rebels have said in recent days that they are unlikely to be able to produce more oil for weeks because equipment needs repairs, and the workers in the fields fear attack by Col Gaddafi's forces.

Violence continued in the country yesterday, as Col Gaddafi's forces intensified their campaign to take strategic heights in a western mountain range.

Much of the fighting centred on the town of Yafrin. Residents, trapped in their homes, were cut off from food and medical supplies, they said.

To the west of the contested Nafusa mountains, home to ethnic Berbers, Libyan shelling forced the closure late on Tuesday of the so-called Wazen passage, a route people fleeing Libya have used to get to Tunisia. Reports from the area said some of the shells fell inside Tunisia - and Tunisian jet fighters flew over the area but did not fire.

Although Col Gaddafi's forces control most of the west, rebels have linked up with the minority Berbers to keep his forces out of the highest points of the Nafusa mountains, denying them a military advantage.

Rebel forces have control of much of eastern Libya, with their headquarters in the coastal city of Benghazi. They also have been fighting to keep Misrata, their only major stronghold in western Libya.

"BelJassem", a citizen-turned-fighter from a Berber village near Yafrin, which is 75 miles south-west of Tripoli, said Col Gaddafi's forces were shelling the town repeatedly. "We dig trenches and hide in there at night," said BelJassem, who gave only his first name for fear of reprisals.

On the eastern front, rebels engaged in a long firefight with Gaddafi loyalists, said Dr Suleiman Refadi, who works at the Ajdabiya Hospital.

He said the rebels killed 14 of Col Gaddafi's fighters and captured 30 near the oil town of Brega, about 50 miles south-west of Ajdabiya. Dr Refadi said the rebels were helped by Nato air strikes, which destroyed eight vehicles carrying heavy artillery.

Last night, the United Nations humanitarian co-ordinator for Libya said 1.6 million people inside the North African country needed aid because fighting had disrupted basic services and depleted food and medical stocks.

Panos Moumtzis, who is based in Geneva, said an additional 500,000 people who have crossed borders to Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere in the region also need humanitarian assistance.

Mr Moumtzis said he was asking international donors for $408m to fund aid for Libya through to September.

Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court prosecutors warned Libyan officials they would be prosecuted if they attempted to cover up crimes by forces loyal to Col Gaddafi. Prosecutors issued the warning in a letter to Libyan foreign minister Abdelati al-Obeidi.