Libyan leader Moamer Qadhafi has agreed to stay out of negotiations on ending his country's four-month conflict, African leaders said in a communique after talks Sunday in South Africa. The African Union panel on Libya "welcomes Colonel Kadhafi's acceptance of not being part of the negotiations process," the statement said, without elaborating.
AU peace and security commissioner Ramtane Lamamra read out the communique but refused to take questions. A South Arican official said after the panel meeting: "We wanted Qadhafi to make a public statement that he would not take part in the negotiations but he would not.
"This means he is finished," the official, who formed part of a South African team that travelled to Tripoli last month in a failed bid to launch peace negotiations, told AFP. He did not want to be named.
The communique repeated the African Union's call for an immediate cease-fire that would lead to negotiations toward democracy, as well as an end to Nato air raids against Qadhafi targets. "The Libyan parties should begin the national dialogue for a comprehensive cease-fire, national reconciliation, transitional arrangements, as well as the agenda for democratic transformation," it said.
"These measures we are proposing should go hand in hand with an equally determined humanitarian effort," it added.
"In this context, we reiterate the call we made at the extraordinary summit of the AU of May 25, 2011, for the stopping of Nato bombings and the observance of a humanitarian pause."
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