Ortega says Qadhafi ready for vote to resolve conflict

MANAGUA: Libya's embattled leader Moamer Qadhafi is ready to hold elections to resolve the ongoing conflict in the North African country, Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega said late Wednesday after meeting with a Libyan delegation.

Ortega, a personal friend of Qadhafi, said the leftist Latin American bloc ALBA supported the move to allow Libyans to "exercise their right to vote... and create the conditions needed to end the war."

The Nicaraguan leader, who called for an end to the allied bombing campaign, said the Libyan delegation had arrived in Managua on Tuesday bringing a letter for him from Qadhafi.

Members of Qadhafi's inner circle have made proposals for democratic elections in recent months but have been dismissed by international forces including the United States.

In June a US State Department spokeswoman said the notion was "a little late" and that Qadhafi's "days are numbered," after the Libyan strongman's son proposed an internationally supervised vote.

NATO at the time called the proposal from Seif al-Islam a "cynical PR ploy."

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011