U.N. says Libya talks extended despite clashes

(GNN) - Libyan peace talks in Morocco between two rival governments, expected to end on Sunday, will be extended for two more days despite clashes on the ground.

Western leaders say the U.N. talks are the only way to end the chaos in Libya, where the two rival governments and armed factions are battling for control and Islamist militants have gained ground in the resulting mayhem.

A renewed military offensive in Libya's capital, Tripoli, had threatened international efforts to reach agreement on a unity government and lasting ceasefire in the warring oil producing state.

Both sides have attacked each other with war planes in the past few days. But earlier on Friday, U.N. special envoy Bernardino Leon had said he hoped the rival factions would soon come closer to reaching a deal.

Despite international pressure for a ceasefire to give a chance to peace talks, the internationally recognized government, which has withdrawn from the capital, said on Friday its troops had started a campaign to "liberate" Tripoli from the rival administration in control there.

"For the moment no one is leaving, we have had a difficult moment... after these attacks there was a possibility either to cancel the dialogue or to lose some of the delegations," Leon told reporters in the Moroccan costal town of Skhirat.

"The documents, which we have been have been discussing the last three days, might be ready tomorrow or the day after tomorrow," he said.

Leon said negotiations on candidates to be part of a unity government will come in a second stage of talks, which would start after a preliminary deal is reached in the next two days.

Diplomats say they accept that moderates attending the talks from both sides will face difficulty in persuading hardliners to accept any deal.

Four years after an uprising ousted Muammar Gaddafi, western powers fear Libya's conflict will spill into a broader civil war. Former rebel groups who once fought together against Gaddafi have turned against one another in a scramble for power.

(Reuters)(Reporting By Aziz El Yaakoubi; Editing by Patrick Markey and Peter Graff)

U.N. Libya envoy says renewed fighting threatens talks

(GNN) - A renewed military offensive in Libya threatens international efforts to reach agreement in the next few days on a unity government and lasting ceasefire in the warring oil producing state, a U.N. envoy said on Friday.

The internationally recognized government of Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni said its troops had started a campaign to "liberate" the capital Tripoli held by a rival administration.

The capital was quiet, residents said. But television stations linked to the opposing sides gave conflicting accounts of who was in control of two towns west of Tripoli.

"If it is a major operation then it will clearly have an impact on the dialogue," U.N. Special Envoy Bernardino Leon said. "It will seriously question the possibilities to continue working in the coming days."

Western leaders say the U.N. talks are the only way to end the chaos in Libya, where two rival governments and armed factions are battling for control and Islamist militants have gained ground in the resulting mayhem.

Both sides have attacked each other with war planes in the past few days. But earlier on Friday, Leon had said he hoped the rival factions would soon come closer to reaching a deal.

"By Sunday, we would like to have these documents ready and, if possible, published," he told reporters in Morocco at the start of the latest round of negotiations.

He was referring to a framework deal not only on a possible government but also on local ceasefires for frontlines across the North African country.

Diplomats are under no illusions that moderates attending the talks for both sides will face difficulties in persuading hardliners to accept any deal.

Both sides face internal divisions and are dominated by former rebels who helped oust autocrat Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, but who now use their weapons to fight for territory.

Thinni's government, which has allied itself with army general Khalifa Haftar, said his forced launched an operation west of the capital "which kicked off the liberation of Tripoli city and its suburbs from terrorist bases."

"In the last days, we have seen more fighting, more air strikes... not only in Libya but also in the region," Leon said, referring to a militant attack in Tunis on Wednesday which killed 23 people.

"There is a sense of emergency so we believe this is going to be a decisive moment," he said. The two gunmen who attacked a Tunis museum trained at a jihadist camp in Libya, Tunisia said.

(Reuters)(Reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi, Ahmed Elumami, Ayman al-Warfalli, Omar Fahmy, Ahmed Tolba and Ulf Laessing; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Dominic Evans)

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Islamic State militants kill 10 pro-Tripoli fighters in central Libya

(GNN) - Ten fighters loyal to the self-proclaimed government that controls Tripoli were killed by Islamic State militants in central Libya on Wednesday, as the Islamists spread their reach in the divided country.

Islamist militants in Libya who have allied themselves to the Islamic State group that controls parts of Iraq and Syria had until recently been mostly active in the east, where the internationally recognized government is now based.

But in recent weeks they have expanded westwards to the city of Sirte, taking government buildings, a hospital and the university, posing a challenge to the Tripoli-based government and its allied factions which have engaged them in battle.

"A number of our hero army members were assassinated this morning by the Islamic State in the Nawfaliyah area," said Osama Abu Naji, a senior official in the Tripoli-based government, referring to a town southeast of Sirte.

"The victims were assassinated, it was not confrontation," he told reporters, without elaborating.

Anticipating more clashes, Sirte residents were seen leaving in a column of cars on the main highway to Misrata, a Reuters reporter said.

In the evening, more than 1,000 people, some weeping, gathered in the center of Misrata, some 200 km (120 miles) west of Sirte, for the dead fighters' funeral.

Forces from Misrata loyal to Tripoli initially deployed in December east of Sirte to try seize Libya's biggest oil ports, Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, from troops loyal to the internationally recognized government.

But they have been dragged into fighting the Islamists who are exploiting the chaos created by the existence of two rival governments.

Four years after the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya is divided, with the official premier Abdullah al-Thinni working from the east since a rival faction seized Tripoli in August, reinstating a previous parliament and setting up a rival administration.

There were also heavy clashes between Islamist fighters and forces allied to the recognized government in the eastern city of Benghazi on Wednesday, residents said. That fighting has been ongoing for almost a year.

Militants loyal to Islamic State have claimed several high-profile attacks in the past two months including the storming of Tripoli's luxury Corinthia hotel and the beheading of 21 Egyptian Copts from Sirte.

(Reuters)(additional reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Libya's parliament calls for U.N. aid to quell militia fighting

#GNN - #Libya's #parliament on Wednesday voted to disband the country's militia brigades and called on the United Nations to protect civilians in an effort to end the worst fighting between armed factions since the 2011 fall of Muammar Gaddafi.

Lawmakers appeared to be seeking to strip the groups of former rebel fighters of the legitimacy they say they were given by the previous parliament and government ministries, and loosen their grip over Libya's fragile democracy.

But with Libya's army still in formation, it was unclear how the new Congress would enforce its decision. Composed of ex-rebels who once fought Gaddafi, the brigades are heavily armed and allied with powerful political factions.


U.S., U.N. and European officials hope the new parliament can forge dialogue among the warring factions. But there is little appetite among Western governments for on-the-ground intervention beyond encouraging the sides to talk.

For more than a month, two rival brigades have battled with rockets and artillery, turning southern Tripoli in a battlefield and forcing the United Nations and Western governments to close their embassies and evacuate diplomats.

One lawmaker said parliament's decision would include the Libya Shield brigades tied to Misrata city and their rivals, the Qaaqaa and al-Sawaiq brigades, allied with Zintan city, who have been fighting over Tripoli airport for a month.

"The decision will dissolve all armed brigades, including all the Shields and Qaqaa and Sawaiq," the lawmaker told Reuters.

The parliament also called for the "United Nations and the Security Council to immediately intervene to protect civilians and state institutions in Libya."

The two sides - fighters loyal to the western town of Zintan and more Islamist-leaning militias allied with Misrata - once fought together against Gaddafi's forces but their rivalries erupted into street battles over the airport last month, killing more than 200 people.

A United Nations delegation, from a Libyan mission known as UNSMIL, is seeking a ceasefire between Zintan and Misrata forces.

At least five people were killed and families were forced from their homes when Grad rockets hit neighborhoods in western Tripoli during clashes between rival armed factions, officials and witnesses said on Wednesday.

"UNSMIL continues to call for the combatants to heed Libyan as well as international calls for an immediate cease-fire," said Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the U.N. Secretary General.

Western partners, fearing Libya will slide into a failed state just across the Mediterranean from mainland Europe, have been frustrated by factions whose loyalties are often tied to cities, regions and former commanders rather than the state.

A separate battle in the city of Benghazi is complicating Libya's security after Islamist fighters joined forces with an ex-rebel group to force special forces from the eastern city.

Around 400 Philippine nationals and some European citizens and Egyptians were the latest to evacuate by ship from Benghazi port on Wednesday en route to Malta, according to Libyan Red Crescent representative Qais Al-Fakhry.

OIL PROGRESS?
Three years after Gaddafi's fall, Libya's transition to democracy has been a messy one, with armed factions often targeting or storming the parliament and ministries to press for decisions favoring their political backers.

With access to huge arsenals of Gaddafi-era weapons, armed groups have proven a massive challenge for the state, even taking over parts of Libya's key oil installations and cutting oil lifeline crude exports to make demands.

In a positive development, an oil tanker carrying 670,000 barrels of crude left Ras Lanuf oil terminal, the first shipment since the port was reopened following a year of blockades, a spokesman for state-run National Oil Corporation said.

The tanker carrying Sirtica crude left the Libyan port on Tuesday evening, the spokesman said.

Until April, federalist rebels demanding more autonomy for their eastern region were holding four out of five eastern oil ports, cutting off over half of Libya's export capacity of 1.25 million barrels per day, and hitting production in the North African OPEC member.

The government managed to strike a deal to free up the ports, but technical problems have delayed the full restart of shipments. The NOC says current national production is around 450,000 barrels per day.

(GNN)(Reuters)(Additional reporting by Feras Bosalum in Benghazi; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Raph Boulton)

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U.S. diplomats' return to Libya could be more hazardous than exit

#GNN - If evacuating U.S. #embassy staff from #Libya was perilous - three F-16 fighters and Marines in Osprey aircraft flew overhead a road convoy from Tripoli to Tunisia - sending them back in could be politically hazardous for President Barack Obama.

U.S. diplomats work in dangerous places such as Baghdad and Kabul, but the ghosts of Benghazi hang over the U.S. presence in Libya after an attack on a U.S. mission in the eastern Libyan city in 2012 that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Republicans, preparing to battle Obama's Democrats in mid-term elections in November, have been quick to characterize the chaos in Libya as further evidence of the administration's weak foreign policy.

The eight or so U.S. diplomats who had been in Libya and a security staff numbering 200 or more drove out of the country on Saturday under a heavy escort, amid the worst violence in the capital and in Benghazi since Washington and its NATO allies helped topple Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

The State Department said embassy staff would return to Tripoli once it was deemed safe.

But analysts said that would be a difficult decision to make given raw memories of the Benghazi attack, which sparked sustained Republican criticism of Obama and his then secretary of state, Hillary Clinton - who is widely expected to run for the White House in 2016.

Republicans charged that the administration did not provide sufficient security for the mission, did not respond quickly enough and then tried to cover up its shortcomings. Harm to another diplomat in Libya would be disastrous for Obama.

Jon Alterman, head of Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, said the United States could not afford to think of the symbolical impact of withdrawing its diplomats when lives were at risk.

“The job of an embassy is to talk to a government. If it’s unclear who you can talk to and who can help provide security then that shifts the equation," Alterman said.

"Embassies rely a lot on local governments to both secure them and also to provide intelligence that helps us secure them. And if that isn’t working then you have to look quite closely at you security plan and whether you can actually protect the facility.”

But he added he did not expect the embassy closure to be long-term, like that in Somalia after anti-U.S. violence in the 1990s, and noted that Tripoli embassy had been evacuated during the fall of Gaddafi and then re-staffed.

LOOKS COUNT
Some of the impact of evacuating an embassy is appearance.

“Of course it looks bad – countries normally try to keep their embassies open as long as they can," said Francois Heisbourg, a security expert at the Foundation for Strategic Research think tank in Paris.

“What would be a problem would be if the Americans stayed out for long period. The decision to close may have come quite naturally, but it’s going to be a very difficult responsibility to reopen the embassy. That is one where the ghosts of Benghazi are going to come back again.”

The State Department sought to play down suggestions that the evacuation would further hamper efforts to stabilize Libya.

“Although embassy personnel are no longer in Libya, we continue to engage the Libyan government on a wide range of issues,” department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Saturday.

The surging violence in Libya prompted fresh criticism of Obama from Republicans keen to portray the administration as weak on all fronts.

"The administration sort of took its focus off of Libya and things have been getting worse for quite some considerable time now," Ed Royce, chairman of the U.S. House foreign relations committee, told CNN on Saturday after news of the U.S. diplomats' departure.

Robin Wright of Washington's Wilson Center think tank, who was a close friend of Ambassador Stevens, said all NATO countries, not just the United States, had "increasingly abandoned Libya over the past three years."

"Now the central government has crumbled to the point that it doesn’t even control Tripoli Airport, much less large swaths of the country," she said. "The long-term danger to the region is that Libya itself crumbles - either into a failed state, or unruly fragments that, in turn, have rippling impact on Africa and the Arab world."

(GNN,Reuters,AIP)(Reporting and writing by David Brunnstrom; Additional reporting by Missy Ryan, Mark Hosenball, Phil Stewart, Emily Stephenson and Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Frances Kerry)

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U.S. evacuates #Libya #embassy after 'free-wheeling #militia violence'

#GNN - The United States evacuated its embassy in Libya on Saturday, driving diplomats across the border into Tunisia under heavy military escort after escalating clashes broke out between rival militias in Tripoli.

Security in the Libyan capital has deteriorated following two weeks of clashes between brigades of former rebel fighters who have pounded each other with rockets and artillery fire in southern Tripoli near the embassy compound.

The violence is the worst seen in Tripoli and in eastern Benghazi since the 2011 fall of Muammar Gaddafi. Western governments fear Libya is teetering toward becoming a failed state just three years after the NATO-backed war ended his one-man rule.

Three F-16 fighters provided air support and Osprey aircraft carrying Marines flew overhead the U.S. convoy as a precaution, but there were no incidents during the five-hour drive from Tripoli to Tunisia, U.S. officials said.

"Security has to come first. Regrettably, we had to take this step because the location of our embassy is in very close proximity to intense fighting and ongoing violence between armed Libyan factions," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement.

U.S. sources familiar with the matter said there were about eight U.S. diplomats and 200 or more U.S. security personnel in Libya and all had been evacuated.

A Reuters reporter outside the embassy later saw no sign of movement or personnel on the perimeter gate of the compound, which lies a few kilometers from the airport.

Since one militia attacked Tripoli airport two weeks ago, fighting has killed at least 50 people in the capital, shut down most international flights and forced the United Nations and Turkey to pull out their diplomatic staff.

Tripoli was quieter after the evacuation. But at least 25 people were also killed in a day of clashes between Libyan special forces and Islamist militants who are entrenched in the eastern city of Benghazi, security and hospital sources said.

Speaking to reporters in Paris before holding talks on the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry described Libya's situation of "free-wheeling militia violence" as a real risk to U.S. staff with clashes around the embassy.

Britain's foreign office on Saturday also urged British nationals to leave by commercial means, due to "ongoing and greater intensity fighting in Tripoli and wider instability throughout Libya."

The battle for control of Tripoli International Airport is the latest eruption in a rivalry among bands of ex-fighters who once battled side by side against Gaddafi. Since then, they have turned against each other in the scramble for control.

Since the 2011 fall of Tripoli, fighters from the western town of Zintan and allies have controlled the area including the international airport, while rivals loyal to the port city of Misrata entrenched themselves in other parts of the capital.

SENSITIVE ISSUE
The State Department spokeswoman said embassy staff would return to Tripoli once it was deemed safe. Until then, embassy operations would be conducted from elsewhere in the region and Washington. Security in Libya is an especially sensitive subject for the United States because of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, in which militants killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

The attack also brought political fallout for President Barack Obama, with Republicans saying his administration did not provide sufficient overall security, did not respond quickly to the attack and then tried to cover up its shortcomings.

Ed Royce, Republican chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, told CNN on Saturday the administration needed to get "more engaged on the ground with the factions in Libya" to help bring the violence under control.

"I think they're on the right track (now) but late into the game in terms of trying to bring factions together and use U.S. leverage in order to try to work this out," Royce said.

A Libyan militant suspected of involvement in the 2012 attack, Ahmed Abu Khatallah, was captured in Libya last month and brought to the United States. He has pleaded not guilty.

But three years after Gaddafi's demise, Libya's transition to democracy is faltering, and its fragile government and nascent armed forces are unable to impose authority over the brigades of former fighters.

Many ex-fighters on the government payroll as semi-official security forces, but often pay little heed to the central government, each brigade claiming to be a legitimate force and the successors of the 2011 revolution.

Heavily armed, they have sided with competing political forces vying to shape the future of Libya in the messy steps since the end of Gaddafi's four-decade rule.

Libya's Western partners fear the OPEC oil-producing country is becoming increasingly polarized between two main groupings of competing militia brigades and their political allies.

One side is grouped around Zintan and their Tripoli allies, the Qaaqaa and al-Sawaiq brigades, which are loosely tied to the National Forces Alliance political movement in the parliament.

Opposing them is a faction centered around the more Islamist-leaning Misrata brigades and allied militias who side with the Justice and Construction Party, a wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.

(GNN)(Reuters)(AIP)(Additional reporting by Bill Trott and Phil Stewart in Washington, Arshad Mohammed in Paris; Editing by Gareth Jones, David Gregorio and Lisa Shumaker)

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Kerry calls for halt to 'dangerous' Libya violence

(GNN) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday called for a halt to "dangerous" levels of violence in Libya after militia clashes in Tripoli closed the country's main airport, destroyed most planes parked there, and prompted the United Nations to evacuate its staff.

In some of the worst violence in months, at least 15 people have been killed in clashes in Tripoli and the eastern city of Benghazi since Sunday, and a Libyan official said several Grad rockets hit the Tripoli International Airport on Monday, damaging the control tower.

With its new government struggling to impose order since the 2011 rebellion that ousted Muammar Gaddafi, Libya is sliding deeper into turmoil with rival brigades of former rebels battling for political and economic power.

So far the authorities have attempted to rein in militia fighters by putting them on the government payroll, but months of protests over oilfields and ports have cut into the government's revenues as its economic troubles mount.

A NATO coalition helped rebels topple Gaddafi, but the military alliance has not intervened to stem the subsequent chaos despite Libyan suggestions that Tripoli was looking at ways that foreign troops might be able to help.

"We are deeply concerned about the level of violence in Libya," Kerry told a news conference following talks on Iran's nuclear program in Vienna.

"It is dangerous and it must stop. We are working very, very hard through our special envoys to find the political cohesion ... that can bring people together to create stronger capacity in the government of Libya so that this violence can end."

Western powers fear chaos in Libya will allow arms and militants to flow across its borders. The south of the vast desert country has become a haven for Islamist militants kicked out of Mali by French forces earlier this year.

Government spokesman Ahmed Lamine said Tripoli was studying the possibility of international forces to improve security. But it was unclear whether there was any real Libyan proposal or international willingness to have foreign troops based in the North African state where heavily armed militias often clash.

NATO air strikes helped rebels in their civil war against Gaddafi's soldiers three years ago, but since his fall Libya struggled in its democratic transition and western governments have been frustrated in attempts to broker a political accord.

A fragile government and parliament have been deadlocked in political struggles between rival Islamist, nationalist and tribal factions each allied to competing brigades of heavily armed former rebels who refuse to disarm and often use their military might to make demands.

The latest heavy fighting broke out between rival militias vying for control of Libya's main airport on Sunday, killing at least seven people and forcing a halt of all flights in the worst fighting in the capital for six months.

The U.N. mission in Libya said the closure of Tripoli airport and the deteriorating security situation made it impossible for it to operate.

SANCTIONS FLASHBACK

Misrata city airport was also closed on Monday, and Benghazi airport has been closed since May. That leaves only two small airports in the south and a land route via Tunisia as the country's only gateways to the outside world, a flashback to the 1990s when Libya was under U.N. sanctions.

Tripoli residents said a Grad rocket struck the airport perimeter late on Monday. A Reuters reporter at the airport heard anti-aircraft guns and other heavy weapons.

The government spokesman said 90 percent of the planes parked at the airport were destroyed.

In Benghazi, irregular forces loyal to renegade former general Khalifa Haftar, a former Gaddafi ally, bombarded Islamist militia bases as part of his self-declared campaign to oust militants. Special forces clashed with militia fighters in the city.

Security and medical sources said at least six people had been killed and 25 wounded in Benghazi in heavy fighting between security forces and rival militias since late Sunday.

Libya's government has managed to end a port blockade by one brigade of militiamen who had controlled four main oil terminals to demand more autonomy for their eastern region. That protest and others at oilfields slashed the OPEC country's production.

Libya's oil production has risen to 588,000 barrels per day (bpd), the country's acting oil minister told Reuters on Tuesday, despite the increase in violence in the country since the weekend.

Oil output has been recovering since the deal with rebels to bring most of the port blockades to an end. On Sunday a spokesman for the National Oil Corp said output was at 470,000 bpd as production at the El Sharara oilfield ramps up.

(Reuters)(Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton in Vienna and Ayman Al-Warfalli in Benghazi; writing by Patrick Markey; editing by Giles Elgood)

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Libya says halts tanker outside rebel port, plans military offensive

GNN - Libya on Monday stopped a North Korean-flagged tanker that had loaded oil from a rebel-held port, after naval forces briefly exchanged fire with the rebels, officials said.

The entrance of the Es Sider export terminal where a North Korean-flagged tanker has docked is seen in Ras Lanuf March 8, 2014.

They also said the government will assemble forces to "liberate" all occupied ports, raising the stakes over a blockage that has cut off vital oil revenue.

The conflict over oil wealth is increasing fears that the OPEC producer may slide deeper into chaos or even splinter as the fragile government fails to rein in dozens of militias that helped oust Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 but now defy state authority.

The rebels, who have seized three ports and partly control a fourth in the North African country, said they had dispatched forces to central Libya to deal with any government attack.

Prime Minister Ali Zeidan told Reuters naval forces had seized the North Korean-flagged tanker outside the eastern Es Sider port controlled by rebels and were taking it to a government port in western Libya.

"The ship is around 20 miles from Es Sider," Zeidan said. "It stopped due to darkness and won't move tonight but is under complete control and secured. Tomorrow it will move."

Naval forces had halted the ship after a brief firefight with the rebels, Culture Minister and government spokesman Habib al-Amin later told reporters. Nobody had been wounded, but he warned opening fire again might damage nearby oil facilities.

A spokesman for the rebels denied several times throughout the evening that they had lost control of the ship.

Even without any major military action, the escalation kills any hope of restoring oil exports soon. A wave of protests at oilfields and ports has reduced Libyan output to a trickle, undermining state authority because oil is the main revenue source supporting the budget and basic food imports.

The head of parliament, who has quasi-presidential powers, ordered the formation of a force made up of regular soldiers and allied militias to take back the occupied ports, which previously handled more than 700,000 barrels of oil per day.

The operation will start within one week, parliament head Nuri Ali Abu Sahmain said in a decree published by spokesman Omar Hmeidan. "The force will be set up to liberate the ports and end the blockage," Hmeidan told Reuters.

Zeidan, who said on Saturday the tanker would be bombed if it tried to export oil, said military action was only one of several options.

"What is confirmed it that all ports will be liberated from the occupiers with all means possible," he said. "We prefer talks but if talks fail then the state will act."

Zeidan said authorities would unload the crude from the tanker once it reached a western port and then launch legal measures against the potential buyers.

DEFIANT REBELS

Libya has been trying to rebuild its army since Gaddafi's ousting, but analysts say it is not yet a match for battle-hardened militias that fought in the eight-month uprising that toppled the dictator.

Still, the force will be drawn from cities such as Misrata that are home to fighters who saw battle in the civil war, according to the decree. Misrata forces were sent earlier this year to fight in clashes deep in Libya's south.

Abb-Rabbo al-Barassi, the self-declared rebel prime minister, called on "all honorable men" in the east to join his forces, a rebel television station reported.

The rebels, made up of former oil security guards, said they had sent forces by land and sea to central Libya to confront any government attackers.

FULL CONFRONTATION UNLIKELY

While the navy did open fire on a Maltese-flagged tanker trying to approach Es Sider in January, analysts say a full military confrontation with the rebels would be unlikely.

The protesters are led by a former anti-Gaddafi commander, Ibrahim Jathran, who was in charge of protecting oilfields and ports until he turned against the government in the summer.

Jathran's campaign to seek more rights for Libya's underdeveloped east has won him some sympathy, but many people dismiss him as a tribal warlord with no political vision.

Libya's top Islamic clerics urged militias who had helped topple Gaddafi to help the government in trying to stop the tanker, according to a statement read on television.

The United Nations' special envoy to Libya, Tarek Mitri, told the U.N. Security Council on Monday that the loading of oil onto the North Korean-flagged vessel "constitutes an illegal act and violates Libya's sovereignty over its ports and natural resources".

On Sunday, Tripoli said the navy and pro-government militias had sent boats to stop the 37,000-tonne tanker from leaving. The vessel had arrived at Es Sider on Saturday.

It is unusual for a tanker flagged to secretive North Korea to sail in the Mediterranean. Shipping sources said it was a flag of convenience to keep the ship's ownership secret.

In a rare bright spot, state National Oil Corp managed to restart the southern El Sharara oilfield after a protest ended there, a spokesman said. It is now pumping 150,000 barrels per day and might reach full capacity at 340,000 bpd by Tuesday afternoon.(GNN INT)(Reuters)

(Additional reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli, Ghaith Shennib, and Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Editing by Dale Hudson and Mohammad Zargham)