Libya's new leaders haggled over expanding their interim cabinet on Sunday as fighting continued for control of two strategic strongholds of the old regime.
Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council (NTC), had been expected to announce a cabinet of up to 36 members in an effort to emphasise unity and counter criticism that the body was unrepresentative.
But a failure to reach agreement appears to reflect divisions that are casting a shadow over the post-revolutionary political landscape. Mahmoud Jibril, the acting prime minister, would only say consultations in Benghazi had not been completed, but NTC sources said they believed a deal would be done "within days".
The NTC has been under pressure to appoint some Islamist figures to reflect their role in the revolution, but tensions have emerged between the council and rebel commanders, as well as with Ali Salabi, an influential preacher being promoted by Qatar and its al-Jazeera TV channel.
Rebels in the former enclave of Misrata, who took heavy losses during the revolution, announced their own candidate, Abdul-Rahman Sweilhi, for prime minister. Sweilhi warned of the danger of a "new dictatorship" and insisted the government could not include "symbols of the Gaddafi regime".
The focus of the tension is Jibril, a technocrat and former regime official who has been accused of failing to consult enough with grassroots opposition groups. Jibril, who helped craft the Nato strategy towards the Libyan uprising, is still expected to retain his post as interim prime minister. Ali Tarhuni, a US-educated economist, is favourite to take charge of economic affairs.
The US, Britain and other western governments have been encouraging Abdel Jalil and Jibril to be more inclusive amid nervousness about internal disagreements while the liberation of the country is incomplete and Gaddafi is still at large and trying to rally support.
Alarm bells first rang in July when the opposition military commander, General Abdel-Fattah Younis, an early defector from the regime, died in what many think was an attack by an Islamist group.
The NTC has laid down a detailed timetable under which the "countdown" to a constitutional referendum and elections can begin only when the country is declared liberated.
An NTC military spokesman predicted at the weekend that Sirte on the coast and Bani Walid in the centre would fall soon but, in reality, it could still take weeks to retake the cities from fighters loyal to Gaddafi. Reuters correspondents at the Bani Walid front described a chaotic rebel retreat after another day of inconclusive fighting.
Refugees fleeing Sirte on Sunday told rebels that supplies of food, medicines and water were running low. A fourth day of combat inside the city saw rebels launch attacks against loyalist units fortified around Ouagadougou hall, the venue for pan-African congresses before the war, and a line of luxury beach-front villages held by the 32nd brigade, commanded by Gaddafi's son Khamis.
Nato jets have continued to bomb in support of the offensive, hitting command centres, vehicles and missile sites on Saturday. The alliance said it had destroyed 39 targets since rebel forces entered the city on Thursday. Rebel commanders said they were rethinking their strategy of avoiding the use of heavy weapons in the city centre for fear of harming civilians.
Four days of fighting have resulted in 25 deaths and 76 injuries among anti-Gaddafi forces. Many happened on Saturday when they were hit by Grad missiles fired from loyalist compounds. Truck-mounted Grad rocket launchers, tanks and two 155mm guns, recently captured from pro-Gaddafi forces, are being readied to target sites in the city.
Misrata military council, which is commanding the offensive, said six Scud missiles were found, two prepared for launching, when loyalist positions in the Jaref valley close to Sirte were overrun. Reports from Sabha, another regime stronghold in the south of Libya, described advances by rebel forces amid rumours that Gaddafi himself, his son Mutasim and intelligence chief Abdullah Sanussi were all in the area.
Gaddafi's spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, claimed Nato air raids killed 354 people in Sirte on Friday. "We will be able to continue this fight and we have enough arms for months and months to come," Ibrahim said in a call to Reuters via satellite telephone on Saturday.
