As Muammar Qadhafi lay still unburied, Libya's outgoing premier said the coming days posed a crucial test of resolve for the new men of power, who are wrangling over the body, and about a formal end to the war. Mahmoud Jibril confirmed he would step down on Saturday after seven months as prime minister of the Western-backed rebel government now that the legal declaration of "liberation" was expected on Sunday following Qadhafi's killing on Thursday.
But in a parting shot from an international business forum in Jordan, the former expatriate academic who has many critics in the motley coalition that ousted Qadhafi two months ago, warned that now was not a time for in-fighting if Libyans were to keep to a plan to hold their first free election next year. Leaders required "resolve", he said, "in the next few days."
In Misrata, the once besieged city whose rebel fighters are pushing claims for a big stake in a "reborn", oil-rich Libya, the curious and the relieved filed for a second day through a market cold store to view the fallen strongman, whose surprise capture and killing in his home town of Sirte sparked joy - and renewed jockeying for influence - across the country.
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