Tripoli says it is ‘ready' to implement reforms, but insists Gaddafi 'must stay'

Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told foreign journalists: "We could have any political system, any changes: constitution, election, anything, but the leader has to lead this forward.

"No one can come to Libya and say: you have to lose your leader or your system or your regime. Who are you to say that?"

The comments were made as Libya’s foreign minister Abdelati Obeidi travelled to Turkey, Greece and Malta in a bid to the convince the international community that a negotiated end to the fighting was possible.

Italy has already chosen to recognise the rebels’ interim council as the “only legitimate interlocutor” in the country.

But the diplomatic push is already facing problems as the opposition said it rejected any proposal that would leave the Libyan leader or his sons in power:

"This war has shown everyone and the world that Gaddafi's sons are no different from him," Iman Bughaigis, the opposition spokeswoman, said in Benghazi. "They are two sides of the same coin."

"Gaddafi has been waging a war on our people with the help of his sons' militias and mercenaries, so we see no difference between them. There is no way to negotiate with this regime."

The New York Times yesterday reported that two of Gaddafi’s sons, Saif al-Islam and Saadi Gaddafi, have created their own plan to remove their father from power amicably and negotiate an end to the conflict.

But Al Jazeera reports that US officials “said they had no information about a plan involving Gaddafi transferring power to one of his sons”.