two o'clock am here in moscow just after midnight in tripoli which is where we go to our breaking news this hour the fast moving developments in libya rebels say they now control most of tripoli and have taken libya's state t.v. channels off air and some reports suggest opposition fighters have been looting private houses to have cut off these sons are now thought to be in rebel hands with a third having escaped house arrest opposition leaders say a large number of their fighters have been killed there are reports of heavy fighting around gadhafi compound but the whereabouts of the colonel are unknown nato insists it will continue combat air patrols until all government forces surrender. journalist thierry meyssan who's founder and chairman of online newspaper the volterra network is in the rixos hotel in tripoli and says nato forces are doing everything to back up the rebels. knowing the short answer is

no more the leaders of the country very well do we from the earth tell but now there is only film normally seen friday will tell but as you know some of the us journalists are not journalists at all the only spot with the cause of journalism so there is people try to keep the all those inside the hotel know the police we don't electricity and no food and we have some legion fighters inside to protect us against the us and. the adelies are surrounded by the triage snow to prevent the entrance of new to you but you need to lose a lot of ground to be spatially reception those would be counteroffensive from the while foresees and they are also the rebels from a. part of the town during the night the need to is blending the

places and the rest of that we've actually cocktails all day we really could tells to shoot everybody in the street and after that only after that the so-called rebels enter of in-between. there are reports now of gunfire near the libya tunisia border thousands of libyans are heading in that direction to flee the fierce fighting between pro and anti kadafi forces r.t. correspondent reena glasgow is at the border there has been a rather intense fighting reported missing link up through kentucky and rebel forces about fifteen kilometers from the border with tunisia in as it's out of the much the border as it's in libya in tunisia have been in sort of a degree as a plate over the past five months people have been not have been trying to escape police because they have a series of like it but what's going on you know is that control it especially now with the libyan forces literally attacking just going over out of their way over

tripoli i found to get even more confusing now people who president every side near the border on this week inside say that over the past couple of weeks there have been reported clashes between on the identified arm down arms and then again we can border guards the ohss say that. there have been sightings of humor is heavy vehicles loaded with armed people are reportedly reportedly libyans but was no license plate so it's hard to identify exactly who those who those people were now as in the clashes which were pretty earlier today between we can point to trolls and i just want to be in government there have not been reported and. i just watched as he says already to say that they believe some of the gunmen on the inside might have been injured or wounded. arena glasgow reporting there from the tunisian border with libya and across the atlantic president obama said despite the

rebel advance into tripoli the outcome of the main battle remains fluid and he's going to try to count has more from washington d.c. . washington a key player in the fight for tripoli says they are in close contact with the rebels leadership and that the u.s. will support a peaceful transition to democracy president obama while on vacation has made this statement this monday in the wake of dramatic developments in tripoli over the weekend that were really far from peaceful again he was talking about what a terrible dictator could outfit was what a great job nato has done he called for the levy is to support the transitional national council that's a body that's heavily backed by western allies as we know he once again said that billions of dollars in frozen leave in assets will go to the council to help them restore order in the country that's been torn apart by the civil war but before the rebels made made it to the central square in tripoli to celebrate the city's

expensive nato bombing it's obvious to everyone that the regime is falling apart with enormous help and their air strikes we've seen the rebels cheering all night very much reminded of what we saw in cairo when hosni mubarak was ousted but let's not forget that up until now the people in egypt are not governed by those they chose as their leaders just one example of a revolution that ended up with people not getting what they were fighting for and they review those who took over and that is the transitional national council of now being chosen by the review people get the council is being recognized as legitimate power in the view by all the allies that it's been helping. many libyans are outraged by the fact that foreign powers of the century made those very important choices for them nato has been in a hurry to wrap up with the mission over the last six months the strike strikes a lot of criticism they killed many innocent civilians while the goal of the mission was to protect civilians nato was facing a deadline in september when

a resolution full strikes had to be renewed and given all the violations that have taken place it would be very hard to get everyone on board for extending the campaign. for more analysis on events in tripoli former u.s. diplomat in libya john graham joins us live from the u.s. . now you are a former u.s. diplomat in libya your experience with the regime how do you think colonel gadhafi fate will play out at this point well i've said from the beginning the one thing that you can predict about colonel gadhafi is that he's unpredictable i do think that the guy really does have a messiah complex and it's quite likely that he will go down fighting he's always said he would and you know apparently get holed up in barracks and. he could very well do that i would be surprised if he ended up say in colombia as in bob worry as

a refugee it could happen he's unpredictable but i doubt it now we are hearing that the road to tunisia is blocked by rebels at this point why are these routes a block and is this to capture the loyalists or to prevent people from escaping the country what are your thoughts on this. well i i'm not at the border your reporters there at the border but i would say they're probably making sure that some of the key players in the regime don't go yet off they rather they'd rather take them to court there certainly would be no reason to stop. free movement of people with if in fact the rebels have not one arab stabbers you can democratic government and of course freedom of movement would be part of that. at this point in almost every nation touched by the arab spring successful anti-government movements have found little change with the coming of a new regime like in egypt for example do you think libya will be different and if so why. well first of all i'm not sure i agree with that premise i was talking with

a bunch of other revolutionaries from tahrir square in switzerland last week and what's happened is that the army is temporarily in charge who actions have been scheduled for september and beginning december for a new government so while many of the people that were rebelling in tahrir square are impatient they may yet get what they want they're just have to wait a little longer for it but in libya different questions i was saying i think on this program yesterday before there is so little civil society in libya there are so few democratic institutions in there so weak they have nothing to build on egypt in tunisia there was at least something to build on once the top phillips was gotten away with in libya that's not the case these people have to start from scratch and there are all kinds of reasons why it could fail what is the whole nature of the transitional council it is. it's it's

a mess it's these people are some of them are exiles some of their are have fled from the khadafi regime a few of them are islamicists some are a intellectuals and college professors some are business people so just hanging together is going to be an enormously did. task for them the other thing is that they've got worried reprisals they've got they can't they can't they can't have reprisals against their enemies that will just create the kind of civil strife that everyone wants to avoid and finally there's the question of tribal warfare or cultural warfare between the berbers and the arabs. and they've got to be very careful that that doesn't happen as well one of the positive things in the last couple of weeks is that a lot of the heavy fighting in the tunisian border and in tripoli has been led by the western tribes so this is not just a question of disgruntled eastern tribes taking over the country so that's

a positive step that the traditional east west tribal splits in libya may not be. entirely negative factor you mentioned that the tribal splits are actually working as part of this revolution to some degree but there's also some criticism that western countries are playing a role as well what role will the u.s. play in the future of libya. well i think you have to take the american president obama at his word in the statement he made and a very much of the statement that mr cameron made that that the that france. and the united states are working toward. they want a free democratic and inclusive libya. and i think they made it very plain that nato will not send troops on the ground. and. i take them at their word for the moment now there's

a lot of suspicion that al qaeda could be part of these rebel groups can the rebels run their country or do you think there could be a power vacuum that could get filled by radical terrorist elements there's definitely a question of a power vacuum and for the reasons i was talking about earlier these people simply may not be willing to get along and it's just human nature there once the main battle was fought off then the schisms and the fractures begin to appear once the main danger has passed so we don't know what's going to happen they're going to have to struggle and stay together and if they don't stay together that will of course open as you say a power vacuum into which islamicist another people could gain power that perhaps would not be for the best interest of the libyan people or for the western nations what do you see as the key factor that needs to happen if for these groups to work together to be successful. well there have been good reports coming out of out of

big guys a from a number of people that have have. have talked to these people and they're getting rather high marks as being how shall i say public spirit democrats willing to work together to seek compromise so maybe that will continue i hope that it does because if it doesn't again because libby has so few democratic institutions in fact so few institutions of any kind even a modest fracturing of the transitional council will mean that total chaos all right thank you very much for joining us john graham former u.s. diplomat in libya my pleasure journalist and anti-war activist susan lindauer says the libyans will not give their oil to the west. i think that it is the end of the regime however i do not think that it is the end of the war i think that that nato has

a very serious problem they have arrived on at the point of a gun they've brought demat quote unquote democracy to libya through guns and the people of libya are very angry at nato they are not jubilant they're either the rebels who have arrived are celebrating the people are not celebrating with them and there's a big difference if nato tries to send to ground forces into tripoli to occupy the city and to spring stability to the area they will create they will create another iraq situation i have no doubt of that at all these people do not like outsiders they are now preparing to pursue tribal vengeance and vendettas very quietly they will punish those who have attacked them and we will probably not hear very much about that in the in the western media at all but this war is not over and they will now have their blood debts and they are not going to be eager to reciprocate and reward britain or france or italy they would like to see those countries stay

out of their of their of libya and to stay out of their oil as well of course a lot of information coming in as this story develops russian foreign minister sergei lavrov says at this crucial crucial stage of the libyan conflict could have been reached much earlier. than we have always wanted a quicker outcome and it could have been faster but a number of factors prevented this from happening including you could actually spears ition told allies they could then she insisted that negotiations were only possible to him as actions were also an obstacle to the far exceeded the mandate issued by do you want security council. leaders of nato member countries have been saying that the future of libya is now in the hands of its people but russia's envoy to the alliance says it will find a way to continue its presence in the country. no one gave nato the un mandate we took it upon themselves the un security council resolution one thousand seven three

quite broad possibilities to international organizations and countries to execute the resolution but it wasn't given to any one organization nato for all intents and purposes usurped this right so if there is a mandate that will execute it as they see fit if there isn't one they'll grant it to themselves or on the request of libya's democratic government will ensure the military presence in this country quite shoot and experience people will always find a way to ensure at least a fig leaf of legitimacy for their presence in libya. the leaders of france italy and of the u.k. of all announced that they will be holding individual talks with the leaders of the libyan transitional government next week artie's daniel bushell brings us the latest details from paris. the french president has spoken to the rebel leader. by telephone on monday and announced that he's invited him for talks on wednesday said

that libya is a potentially rich country but it needs support and aid to rebuild in fact paris is behaving as if it's all over now. the war is finished and the fact in fact officially announced its military mission in libya is complete but experts here do express fears that the regime is between the rebels themselves that they like a common enemy and get their feet if gadhafi has indeed now gone may mean there is further violence as those splits between the rebels are exposed in brussels diplomats and analysts saying that the united states has really taken a backseat here see an opportunity to take a leading role french defense minister says that the talks will find a road map the future of libya that's necessary to avoid the country slipping back into civil war to find common ground and to force the democracy the officially to improve ties between european nations and the new government now it's in these

leaders silvio berlusconi has also announced that he will be meeting the rebel needers now analysts here are saying that this may be too also long before western ration for its oil corporations for example we know that any had large contracts with gadhafi before the civil war and was accused of corruption in order to gain massive contracts in that country pierre a professor of political science from paris university says that as they're. running the country the west will get the oil. this is a. complex. a long time to resolve. tribal conflicts conflicts. political. rebels big. not so long.

people there were also people who attacked. us and so on so. you know. you should pull the group. forward contracts to. something because basically the rebels. tend to nato. in this particular particular case was. very likely then friends of the going to benefit from. news of the rebel advance into tripoli was greeted warmly by investors around the world sparking an immediate drop in oil prices and last say now the most important question is just how much stability the new government will bring or tease her for it has the latest what we thing really is a knee jerk reaction in the oil markets to the events in tripoli we stay in the oil prices you say talking almost three dollars in festus thinking that there are some

hopes so oil production kids very shortly now it's least foreign minister has confirmed that the italian oil company any has sent workers back into libya they've led the way really sending their workers back there now what we've seen is the other big oil companies such as the b.p. have actually passing the fence at the moment they're waiting for exactly how this plays out what's going to happen over the coming days and weeks all we've heard from the information editor of the libyan rebel oil is that they said they don't have any problems with western countries western companies. italy france the u.k. very k. but they could have political issues with countries like brazil china and russia now if that's to be the case then that could certainly be a major setback for those countries you could see the loss of billions of dollars worth of oil contracts i was speaking to one of the editors today

a very large newspaper here and it's the and he's been following the situation very closely and how he described this was like a chess game now between the oil companies between the front countries on the ground there is still an extremely confusing time in libya what's happening in tripoli now there is still a lot left. and say certainly by no means is this game at the moment but that does spell the potential problems for those countries that the libyan revolution has pointed out that amongst the market that there will be output in oil production restored some point in the near future in libya or to surface reporting for us there now author and analyst william and all things the struggle for libyan oil is the real bottom line of the whole nato operation. it's simply an insurgency being supported covertly by u.s. financed arm shipments into the rebels and in order to simply carve up the oil fields and get it into western hands rather than into libyan state hands which

could often be held firmly to that i think the real underlying issue in this whole nato bombing of libya i think it suits some of the western oil interests especially the british and the french who are fighting like and like piron is over grabbing the most you see oil fields for them for their own companies that it suits them to have chaos because then they can control the the terms of oil exploitation much better and ever since and it's been the most brazen violation of international law that we've seen it's so incredible to me that. the international media doesn't debate some of the some of the legal aspects of this and i think what what libya's going to face after that is a period of prolonged chaos nobody knows the outcome this is as i said at the beginning this is tribe against tribe this is not democracy against a tallit airiness and. members of the european union have once again called on qaddafi to relinquish power but euphoria over the ongoing assault on tripoli's

fading replaced by concern that the new government may not have the authority needed to bring and maintain peace bennett is following the reaction from london. the prime minister david cameron is very confident that this is the beginning of the end he said he is on his way out he's recently just been on the phone to the leader of the national transitional council mustapha. stressing the need for a smooth peaceful and as quick as possible transition to this new democratic leadership at the same time as all of that he did say that nato forces mandate for being in the country expires in just one month it will stay there for as long as it takes so quite an open ended response to that question if there is some uncertainty tempering the jubilation around the rebels presence in tripoli the other uncertainty is over the question of the frozen assets britain has said it's prepared to release them for the building a new infrastructure in the country and stabilize the but there is some uncertainty

is who those will go to and how they'll be used also on around the e.u. sanctions a spokesperson for the e.u. foreign affairs committee has said for the time being will remain in place over libya and will be lifted when the time is right and finally get down to where reese he. is still unknown and britain stance has changed once again about on that issue prime minister saying this morning that his future will be in the hands of the rebels themselves to begin with when the campaign started six months ago he was saying that gadhafi must go then they changed tack about a month ago saying that he can stay in the country so long as he stands down but living in exile now there seems to be washing their hands of it once again saying that it will be in the hands of the rebels in libya potentially precarious state this post dictatorship limbo and we've been here of course before with iraq when mistakes were made and like iran libya sits on a great deal of oil wealth so that really complicates the issue considerably unlike

iraq however there is the foundation for a new government already in place that is recognized around you they already have it didn't match the mission here in london but already the british press is quite skeptical of their ability to govern democratically saying that there are there is potential for infighting with a lot of different interest there. britain has sworn to stand by the fragmented transitional government in the days and weeks ahead but self-interest may be the driving force behind london's promises that's according to john reese the stop the war coalition got rid of gadhafi and nobody's going to shed any tears for that brutal dictatorship but i imagine that what most people in libya don't want is to swap the rule of gadhafi for that of the western powers and part of the problem here is of course the way in which he has fallen today has been the single biggest day of nato air operations in the entire history of this intervention so it's quite

clear that the t.n.c. will come to power as the proxy use of the western powers and the western powers don't do this without asking for a payback and they will be asking for a payback if i were libyan and i were listening to david cameron's speech or fired listen to what nato said earlier that they want to assist the transition i mean heaven knows what a military alliance supposedly assisting a transition to democracy is all about i would take those remarks as more of a threat than a promise that is a direct threat by david cameron that they will use their military and economic weight to gain what they want out of any new government in libya the only chance of unity for the t.n.c. is that they do what most libyans i believe want them to do and that is to say that the future of libya is to be decided by libyans and by nobody else but they do not require the assistance of nato that they do not require the assistance of the major

powers that they do not want their resources exploited by western oil companies that could be a point of unification but if they continue down the line of competing amongst themselves for who has the ear who has the greatest the greatest sway with the major powers then i would i really believe that that will further divide them. and of course we will. be back with a. few moments thanks for staying with. us.

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bringing you the top news and headlines from around the world this is live from moscow glad to have you with us on to our breaking news now rebels claim to control the libyan capital after a major nato back to dance was thought to have colonel gadhafi sons were captured by the opposition but one has reportedly escaped with the help of the oil list fighters. independent journalists at the rixos hotel in tripoli tell our team they feel under siege and in danger from what's happening outside. opposition supporters rejoice hoping the forty year old regime is nearing a dead end but skeptics point to the bitter disillusionment that followed the fall of egypt's dictator. e.u. leaders who rushed to hold talks with officials from libya's new government as the transitional.