After the anarchic drama of their capture and killing of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya's new leaders argued over his body on Friday, while Libyans, and the world, awaited the formal launch of a new era of democracy.
A Reuters journalist saw the corpse, a bullet wound in the side of the head, lying in a cold store in an old market area of Misrata, where it was taken after the 69-year-old fugitive strongman was killed in his hometown of Sirte on Thursday.
A local commander said it would be buried with dignity and full Muslim rites within 24 hours, but the site was not yet determined. A senior official of the National Transitional Council told Reuters there was division in the upper reaches of the NTC over where Gaddafi's final resting place should be.
"They are not agreeing on the place of burial. Under Islam he should have been buried quickly but they have to reach an agreement whether he is to be buried in Misrata, Sirte, or somewhere else," said the senior official, speaking anonymously.
With expectations running high that a formal declaration of "liberation" could come by Saturday, setting a clock ticking on a timeline to a new constitution and elections, the interim oil minister said he was urging colleagues to keep the body chilled for some days to ensure there was no doubt Gaddafi was dead.
Arguments over where and how to dispose of the remains, as well as those of Gaddafi's son Mo'tassim, followed surprise and confusion on Thursday over their capture and deaths and serve as a stark reminder of the challenges facing any new administration in imposing order on a country awash with guns and armed groups.
Another son of Gaddafi, heir apparent Saif al-Islam, was said by NTC officials to be still at large around Sirte, but his prospects of mounting a serious challenge were over.
Fighters from Misrata, Libya's third city whose siege at the hands of Gaddafi's forces became a symbol of revolt, were quick to take the bodies to their home ground and have been among the most prominent of groups pushing for a bigger say in government.
A declaration of liberation from 42 years of one-man rule would also, under present plans, formalise a move of the government from Benghazi, the second city and home of the first rebellion, in the far east, to Tripoli, the capital, in the west. But NTC officials were still unclear as to whether the declaration itself would be made in Benghazi or Tripoli.
Rivalries
Long-standing regional rivalries in a country only put together under Italian colonial rule in the 1930s are part of a complex of tribal, ethnic and other divisions which Gaddafi exploited at times to control the thinly populated country of six million and its substantial oil and gas resources.
As NATO powers prepared to wind down their air support mission which helped topple Gaddafi from Tripoli two months ago, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said his death marked the start of a "new era".
Oil minister Ali Tarhouni told Reuters that he was hoping he might be named prime minister next week as the new phase of transition to democracy begins. A period of eight months that had been hoped for as a schedule for a new constitution might be optimistic, however, Tarhouni added.
Confusion over exactly how Gaddafi died illustrates the challenge Libyans face to now summon order out of the armed chaos that is the legacy of eight months of conflict.
The killing or capture of senior aides, including possibly two sons, as an armoured convoy braved NATO air strikes in a desperate bid to break out of Sirte, may ease fears that diehards could regroup -- though cellphone video, apparently of Gaddafi alive and being beaten, may inflame his sympathisers.
Interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said on Thursday that Gaddafi was hit during "crossfire" while being taken to hospital, but most Libyans, including officials, seemed to have little doubt that he was probably killed by his captors.
As news of Gaddafi's demise spread, people poured into the streets in jubilation. Joyous fighters fired their weapons in the air, shouting "Allahu Akbar".
Others wrote graffiti on the parapets of the highway outside Sirte. One said simply: "Gaddafi was captured here".
Jibril, reading what he said was a post-mortem report, said Gaddafi was hauled unresisting from a "sewage pipe". He was then shot in the arm and put in a truck which was "caught in crossfire" as it ferried the former leader to hospital.
"He was hit by a bullet in the head," Jibril said, adding it was unclear which side had fired the fatal shot.A doctor who examined the body later told Al Arabiya television that a bullet in the gut was the main cause of death.
"Wow"
Clinton, on a visit to Afghanistan, received first news of Gaddafi's capture in a phone message. "Wow," Clinton exclaimed, looking into a smart phone handed to her by an aide in Kabul. "Unconfirmed," she said, explaining to those around her. "Unconfirmed reports about Gaddafi being captured."
Speaking in Islamabad on Friday, Clinton said Gaddafi's death marked the start of a "new era" for the Libyan people.
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