TRIPOLI: Moamer Qadhafi may be wounded and on the run, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said on Friday, adding that the Libyan strongman's regime was disintegrating.
Frattini's remarks, based on a comments he said were made to him by the Roman Catholic bishop of Tripoli, came as rebel leader Mahmud Jibril was headed for the White House to press for US recognition and aid.
"I tend to think of as credible comments by the bishop of Tripoli, monsignor (Giovanni Innocenzo) Martinelli, who told us that Qadhafi is very probably outside of Tripoli and probably also injured. But we don't know where he is," Frattini told reporters in Rome.
An AFP correspondent in Tripoli attempted to reach Bishop Martinelli by telephone but was unsuccessful.
Frattini had earlier told Corriere della Sera daily: "I am of the view that (Qadhafi) has probably fled from Tripoli but not from the country."
He also cast doubt on the reliability of television images showing Qadhafi on state television earlier this week. "I have a lot of doubts that those images were shot that day," he said.
On Wednesday, the television showed footage of Qadhafi in a meeting, which it said was with eastern tribal dignitaries that same day.
Frattini said international pressure was causing "the disintegration of the regime from the inside, which is what we wanted," adding that arms depots had been raided by rebels on the outskirts of Tripoli in the past few hours.
"We have seen some rebel flags flying... in eastern Tripoli," he said.
"International pressure has apparently provoked a decision by Qadhafi to seek refuge in a safer place," Frattini said.
With rebel forces claiming to be only 10 kilometres (six miles) from Zliten, their next main military target on the road to Tripoli, insurgent leader Mahmud Jibril was to hold talks with US National Security Adviser Tom Donilon.
Officials would not say whether President Barack Obama would drop by the meeting, a practice sometimes used with guests for whom protocol does not dictate an official meeting.
Jibril, who handles foreign affairs for the rebels' National Transitional Council (NTC), was asked by CNN television what he expected from the talks and replied: "We need the recognition."
The Libyan opposition, based in the eastern city of Benghazi, wants Washington to recognise the body as "the sole legitimate interlocutor of the Libyan people," he said.
Unlike France, Gambia, Italy and Qatar, the United States has not recognised the NTC. Jibril told CNN he believed Jordan would also recognise the opposition in the coming days.
"All we need is for the world to understand our cause and help us get our legitimate rights realised," he said.
But White House spokesman Jay Carney signalled that Washington was not ready to grant full status to the NTC.
"If the question is recognising the (NTC) as the official government of Libya, I think that's premature," he said.
"We think that the council serves and has served as a credible and legitimate interlocutor for the Libyan people, for the opposition."
Jibril warned earlier that the council was facing a "very acute financial problem" and needed help from the US administration.
Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said regime assets frozen in the United States -- some $30 billion (20 billion euros) -- would be used to help the Libyan people.
Jibril's visit comes as the Obama administration gradually steps up contacts with Qadhafi's opposition to better understand the movement before deciding on the extent of US assistance.
In The Hague, ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said that on Monday he will seek arrest warrants for three people considered most responsible for crimes against humanity in Libya.
His office said it would reveal the three names, with diplomats saying Qadhafi is likely to top the list.
"The judges may decide to accept the application, to reject it or to ask the office for additional information," a statement said.
Last week, Moreno-Ocampo said Qadhafi's regime was murdering and persecuting civilians in widespread and systematic attacks.
He said he was also investigating the deaths of dozens of sub-Saharan Africans in the rebel bastion of Benghazi by an "angry mob" who believed they were mercenaries in Qadhafi's pay.
In Geneva, the UN refugee agency said it feared that up to 1,200 people fleeing Libya had died in the Mediterranean Sea so far and that it had found evidence that a military vessel refused to rescue one boat.
"There are about 12,000 people who have arrived in Italy or Malta and we believe that as many as 1,200 people are dead or have gone missing," said Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
A migrant told the UNHCR that unidentified military vessels off the Libyan coast refused or failed to pick up a boat carrying 72 people, most of whom subsequently died of exhaustion, thirst or starvation in late March or early April.
Meanwhile, Libyan state TV said at 16 "civilians" were killed and dozens wounded in a NATO air strike late Thursday on Brega, to the east of the capital.
A spokesman in Brussels said the Western military alliance had no information on the veracity of the claim.
But NATO said its air offensive around key Libyan cities has significantly affected Qadhafi's forces, halting the shelling of Misrata in the previous 24 hours.
"The situation on the ground remains dynamic with significant changes," Wing Commander Mike Bracken said at NATO operational headquarters in Naples, Italy.
"Just in the past 72 hours, our strikes in Tripoli, around Sirte and the port town of Misrata have significantly impacted the command and control capability of the Qadhafi regime, his supplies of ammunition and weapons, and his ability to launch attacks," Bracken said.
East of Tripoli, an explosion on Friday shook the suburb of Tajura, the focus of almost daily coalition air strikes since March 19, a witness said.
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