Libya's new leadership is NATO-backed 'charade', won't last: Gaddafi

Fugitive strongman Muammar Gaddafi denounced Libya's new leadership as a "charade" backed by NATO air strikes which will not last forever, in an audio message aired on television on Tuesday.

The remarks came ahead of the first talks between US President Barack Obama and Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the head of the National Transitional Council (NTC) -- now recognised as Libya's legitimate leaders.

"What is happening in Libya is a charade which can only take place thanks to the (NATO-led) air raids, which will not last forever," said Gaddafi, for decades an outlandish fixture at the annual UN General Assembly in New York with his tent and rambling speeches.

Gaddafi is believed to be hiding in Libya, although members of his family fled to Algeria and Niger after rebel fighters, backed by a NATO-led air war, overran Tripoli on August 23.

"Do not rejoice and don't believe that one regime has been overthrown and another imposed with the help of air and maritime strikes," Gaddafi said in the message broadcast on Syria-based Arrai television.

The recording was the first since September 8 by Gaddafi, who is wanted for alleged crimes against humanity along with his son Seif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi.

It was released after the new regime's forces said they captured the airport and a garrison in his southern redoubt of Sabha, and fighting raged in two of his northern strongholds.

The capture of the airport and garrison at Sabha, a strategic desert city 800 kilometres (500 miles) south of Tripoli, was announced early today by Mohammed Wardugu, spokesman for the NTC's "Desert Shield Brigade."