Rebels will not pursue Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi over crimes they say he has committed if he steps down from his post in the next 72 hours, the head of the rebel National Libyan Council said on Tuesday.
"If he leaves Libya immediately, during 72 hours, and stops the bombardment, we as Libyans will step back from pursuing him for crimes," Mustafa Abdel Jalil, an ex-justice minister, told Al Jazeera television by telephone. He said the deadline would not be extended beyond 72 hours.
The council is based in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.
Earlier Tuesday, a rebel spokesman said a representative of Muammar Gaddafi offered talks on the Libyan leader's exit but that the council rejected any negotiations with a leader they do not trust.
"I confirm that we received contact from a Gaddafi representative seeking to negotiate Gaddafi's exit. We rejected this. We are not negotiating with someone who spilled Libyan blood and continues to do so. Why would we trust the guy today?" a media officer for the council, Mustafa Gheriani, told Reuters.
The Libyan government has denied holding talks with rebels, Al Arabiya television reported later. Al Arabiya did not give details or a source of its initial report.
But it then quoted a Libyan Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying the accusations of the Libyan National Council, an interim body set up by rebels, did not deserve a response.
Meanwhile, government forces attacked rebels with rockets, tanks and warplanes on western and eastern fronts, intensifying their offensive to crush the revolt against Gaddafi.
Rising casualties and the threats of hunger and a refugee crisis increased pressure on foreign governments to act, but they struggled to agree a strategy for dealing with the turmoil, many fearful of moving from sanctions alone to military action.
In besieged Zawiyah, the closest rebel-held city to Tripoli, trapped residents cowered from the onslaught on Tuesday.
"Fighting is still going on now. Gaddafi's forces are using tanks. There are also sporadic air strikes ... they could not reach the center of the town which is still in the control of the revolutionaries," a resident called Ibrahim said by phone.
In the east, much of which is under rebel control, warplanes bombed rebel positions around the oil port of Ras Lanuf.
Rebel euphoria seemed to have dimmed. "People are dying out there. Gaddafi's forces have rockets and tanks," Abdel Salem Mohamed, 21, told Reuters near Ras Lanuf. "You see this? This is no good," he said of his light machinegun.
Britain and France led
a drive at the United Nations for a no-fly zone over Libya which would prevent Gaddafi from unleashing air raids or from flying in reinforcements. The Arab League and several Gulf states have also called for such a step.
"It is unacceptable that Colonel Gaddafi unleashes so much violence on his own people and we are all gravely concerned about what would happen if he were to try to do that on an even greater basis," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said.
Russia and China, who have veto power in the U.N. Security Council, are cool towards the idea of a no-fly zone.
The U.S. government, whose interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan enraged many of the world's Muslims, said it was weighing up military options and that action should be taken only with international backing.
