Word of the hidden diplomacy coincided with preparations by the rebels in the east of the country for what seemed a further attempt to wrest the momentum of ground fighting away from Colonel Qaddafi’s forces along the country’s coastal highway, the setting for days of see-sawing advances and retreats.
Hundreds of rebels seeking Colonel Qaddafi’s ouster massed about 15 miles to the east of the oil port of Brega on Friday, steeling themselves for an advance against the government forces holding the town after a chaotic withdrawal from the town on Wednesday.
When the insurgents gathered on Friday, after failing to press forward the day before, they appeared to have brought heavier weapons, including multiple rocket launchers, although some young men in the cavalcade of pickup trucks and civilian cars seemed to be unarmed.
It was not immediately clear how the military deployments related to the political and diplomatic maneuvering, much of which centered on Britain — one of the leading coalition allies in the effort to force Colonel Qaddafi out of power. Mohammed Ismail, a senior aide to Seif al-Islam, one of Colonel Qaddafi’s sons, traveled to London for talks with British officials in recent days, the friend said in London on Friday, speaking in return for anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters. The nature and exact timing of the contact was not clear.
The friend said Mr. Ismail planned to return to Tripoli after his discussions. Word of the possible overture coincided with a welter of rumor that more officials planned to defect. A Foreign Office spokesman, who spoke in return for anonymity under departmental procedures, said: “We are not going to provide a running commentary on our contact with Libyan officials.”
On Thursday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague, possibly trying to unsettle the Tripoli regime, said he had been in contact with the most high-profile defector so far, Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, days before he fled to London on Wednesday. The fog of rumor surrounding likely defections became ever murkier on Friday when another senior official, Ali Abdussalam el-Treki, who had been reported to have abandoned the Qaddafi regime on Thursday, denied defecting.
Mr. el-Treki, a former foreign minister and a former United Nations ambassador who had worked closely with Colonel Qaddafi for decades, said in an interview in Cairo on Friday that he had not formally defected, but was seeking to arrange a ceasefire. He said the truce could be implemented under United Nations auspices. He refrained from direct criticism of Colonel Qaddafi.
British officials have frequently stressed that no defector will be granted immunity from prosecution. At a news conference on Thursday, Prime Minister David Cameron referred to the defection of Mr. Koussa as “a compelling story of the desperation and the fear at the very top of the crumbling and rotten Qaddafi regime.”
In a sign of the mounting tensions inside the capital, a gunfight broke out before dawn on Friday in the neighborhood outside Colonel Qaddafi’s compound. The gunfire was heard for blocks around the city and two witnesses, speaking on condition of anonymity for their safety, said that they saw “pools of blood” in the streets, which fire crews later cleaned up.
The reasons for dispute was unclear. The Qaddafi government has been arming civilians around the country with Kalashnikov assault rifles, and guns are increasingly visible on the streets. In some areas outside the capital considered loyal to Colonel Qaddafi, the rifles now seem “as common as mobile phones,” as one Libyan put it.
Residents reported other signs of growing restiveness in the capital. One resident of the rebellious neighborhood of Tajoura and another with ties to the nearby area of Suk al-juma said that pro-Qaddafi militia members could no longer safely enter the side streets in small numbers for fear of attack by local residents, although heavy contingents of militia still dominate the main arteries.
In the increasingly long lines for gasoline, residents said, Libyans were no longer allowing armed militiamen cut to the front, forcing even those brandishing assault rifle to wait in line.
Restrictions on foreign journalists were tighter than ever on Friday, the traditional day for street protests after Muslims gather for prayers. At the hotel housing journalists, a guard at the gate chased down two journalists to say that leaving was “prohibited.” For the first time, Libyan officials also denied a journalist’s request to attend a Christian church service, held on Friday mornings here.
Residents reacted in shock at the defection of Mr. Koussa, a close ally of Colonel Qaddafi’s since the early days of the revolution, who once earned the nickname “envoy of death” for his role in the assassinations of earlier Libyan defectors.
In Tripoli on Thursday, rumors swirled of a cascade of high-level defections. The pan-Arab news channel Al Jazeera reported without confirmation that the intelligence chief and the speaker of Parliament had fled to Tunisia. Other rumors, like the exit of the oil minister, were quickly shot down. But taking no chances, Libyan officials posted guards to prevent any other officials from leaving the country, two former officials said.
The speculation underscored the increasing tension in the capital as allied air strikes crippled the military machine that Colonel Qaddafi deployed almost exclusively as a bulwark against his own population.
Western leaders hailed Mr. Koussa’s departure, in particular, as a turning point. “Moussa Koussa’s decision shows which way the wind is blowing in Tripoli,” said Tommy Vietor, a national security spokesman at the White House.
Musa Ibrahim, a government spokesman who huddled behind closed doors until well after midnight on Wednesday struggling to confirm Mr. Koussa’s departure, said in a news conference on Thursday: “This is not like a happy piece of news, is it? But people are saying, ‘So what, if someone wants to step down? That is their decision. The fight continues.’ ”
Asked if Colonel Qaddafi and his sons were still in Libya, Mr. Ibrahim smiled. “Rest assured, we are all still here,” he said. “We will remain here until the end.”
Aside from Colonel Qaddafi’s sons, the most important ally remaining at his side — rivaled in influence only by Mr. Koussa — is his brother-in-law, Abdullah Senussi, a top security adviser. “He is the right hand and the left hand of the regime,” said Ali Aujali, who was the Libyan ambassador to the United States until he defected a few weeks ago.
In a speech in London on Thursday, Foreign Secretary William Hague said Mr. Koussa, who is believed to have helped orchestrate the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, had fled to London “of his own free will” with no offer of immunity from British or international justice.
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said on March 3 that he would investigate “alleged crimes against humanity committed in Libya since 15 February, as peaceful demonstrators were attacked by security forces.” He placed Mr. Koussa second after Colonel Qaddafi on a list of “some individuals with formal or de facto authority, who commanded and had control over the forces that allegedly committed the crimes.”
Mr. Ibrahim, the Qaddafi government spokesman, said Mr. Koussa had been granted a leave of a few days to receive medical care in Tunisia, a common practice among the Libyan elite. But Mr. Ibrahim said Mr. Koussa had not contacted the Qaddafi government since the day after he crossed the border. “I don’t think his sick leave included London,” Mr. Ibrahim said. Mr. Ibrahim said that the government had already proved its resilience in the face of conditions that were “extremely ripe for a popular rebellion.”
“The skies are afire, the bombardment is everywhere, the rebels are in the east, there are shortages of fuel,” Mr. Ibrahim said. “Where is the popular uprising? Where are the tribes coming out to say he must go?”
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