Libya will replace energy chief who defected

The Libyan government said on Thursday it will send a representative to the next Opec meeting, replacing the top oil official who defected saying he had lost faith in the rule of Muammar Qadhafi. Shokri Ghanem, who oversaw Libya's oil and gas sector, is the second most senior official to quit and rebels said the defection showed that the end is nearing for Qadhafi almost four months into a nation-wide rebellion against him.
But a government spokesman in Tripoli played down the significance of Ghanem's departure. "This is a country, a state, a government, not just one person," Mussa Ibrahim told Reuters. He said the government would be represented at the meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna on June 8. "I don't have a name yet but we'll have somebody," he said.
In rebel-held eastern Libya, an explosion damaged a hotel used by rebels and foreigners in Benghazi, wounding one person. Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, vice chairman of the rebel National Transitional Council in Benghazi, told Reuters the explosion outside Tibesti hotel was believed to have been caused by a hand grenade thrown in a "desperate attempt" by Qadhafi's loyalists to sow terror.
Now in its fourth month, the Libyan conflict is deadlocked, with rebels unable to break out of their strongholds and advance towards Tripoli, where Qadhafi appears to be firmly entrenched. Rebels control the east of Libya around Benghazi, the third-biggest city Misrata, and a mountain range stretching from the town of Zintan, 150 km (95 miles) south of Tripoli, towards the western border with Tunisia.
Western governments say they believe they are gradually wearing down Qadhafi's ability to control the country, through a combination of diplomatic pressure and military action. Qadhafi has signalled he has no intention of stepping down. He says the rebels are armed criminals and al Qaeda militants, and has called the Nato intervention an act of colonial aggression designed to grab Libya's plentiful oil.
Explosions were heard in central Tripoli in the early hours of Thursday and aircraft could be heard flying overhead. Libyan state television said Nato warplanes - which have repeatedly bombed Qadhafi's Bab al-Aziziyah complex in the centre of Tripoli - had struck targets in the city.
In Misrata, rebel fighters have driven forces loyal to Qadhafi out of the centre of the city and pushed westwards towards the neighbouring town of Zlitan, where they were exchanging artillery fire. "They (pro-Qadhafi forces) are randomly bombarding from an area near Zlitan," said a rebel spokesman called Youssef, by telephone from Misrata. Rebels in the Western Mountains swept down from their mountain-top positions on Wednesday to seize a power station in the village of Shakshuk, after electricity supplies to the region were cut off.