ADDIS ABABA: The African Union on Tuesday urged Libyan rebels to "cooperate fully" after they rejected a truce plan presented by the continental body.
"Due to a political demand set as a pre-condition by the Transitional National Council (TNC) to launching urgent talks on the implementation of a truce, it was not possible at this stage to reach an agreement on the key issue of a cessation of hostilities," said a statement on Monday's visit to Libya of an AU delegation that included heads of state.
The delegation "makes an urgent call on the TNC to fully cooperate, for the sake of Libya's higher interests, and assist in the quest for and implementation of a fair and lasting political solution," the statement said.
The statement added that a ceasefire was essential and that the AU remained "determined to continue striving towards achieving what it set out to do".
Libya's strongman Moamer Qadhafi accepted the AU's truce plan but the rebels argued the initiative was obsolete and insisted Qadhafi should be ousted.
Rebel leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil on Monday argued that the proposal made by the pan-African body, which until last year was chaired by Qadhafi and receives substantial funding from Libya, ignored the people's main demand.
"Qadhafi and his sons must leave immediately if they want to be safe... Any initiative that does not include the people's demand, the popular demand, essential demand, we cannot possibly recognise," he told reporters.
The delegation mandated by the AU to stop the fighting in Libya arrived late Monday in the Algerian capital for two days of talks with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, APS news agency reported.
"We are working to find a solution to this complex question and we are continuing our efforts to get out of this crisis," Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz was quoted as saying on arrival.
He was accompanied by Congo's President Denis Sassou Nguesso, AU Commission chairman Jean Ping and Ugandan Foreign Minister Henry Oryem Okello, APS said.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also stuck to US demands for Qadhafi to step down and leave Libya as part of a peaceful transition, but declined to comment on the proposed African Union deal before being fully briefed.
She told a news conference in Washington however that "there needs to be a transition that reflects the will of the Libyan people and the departure of Qadhafi from power and from Libya."
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