Gaddafi to be tried in Libya, polls in 8 months: Rebel chief

Libya will hold elections in eight months and Muammar Gaddafi will be tried in the country, opposition leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said in comments published today.

"In eight months we will hold legislative and presidential elections. We want a democratic government and a just constitution," promised Abdel Jalil, chairman of the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC).

"Above all we do not wish to continue to be isolated in the world as we have been up to now," he added in comments published in the Italian La Repubblica daily.

The whereabouts of Libyan strongman Colonel Gaddafi remained unknown today as the rebels overran his Tripoli compound.

But in an interview with BBC radio, the British coordinator of the NTC, Guma Al-Gamaty, said the movement of the NTC from Benghazi to Tripoli "is happening already".

"I think the whole NTC should be in Tripoli probably by as early as Saturday," he said.

Rebel leader Jalil said the "Gaddafi era is over, even if it will only really end with his capture and his conviction for the crimes he has committed."

There were only "pockets of resistance" left in Tripoli, as well as troops in Sirte, the leader's historic stronghold.

The mass of opinion within the NTC was that Gaddafi and his cohorts should be judged "in a fair trial, but it must take place in Libya," he said.