No post-mortem for Gaddafi as debate over burial continues

Misurata fighters who captured Gaddafi refuse to accept any blame for the dictator's death and have rejected international demands for a medical report into the cause of death.

"There will be no post-mortem today, nor any day," Misurata military council spokesman Fathi al-Bashaagha said. "No one is going to open up his body."

The statement came amid prolonged confusion over how rebel officials intended to deal with the corpse.

Al-Rai television, a Syria-based outfit that has functioned as the mouthpiece of Col Gaddafi's loyalists, said relatives wanted the body to be handed over.

"We call on the UN, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and Amnesty International to force the [National] Transitional Council to hand over the martyrs' bodies to our tribe in Sirte and to allow them to perform their burial ceremony in accordance with Islamic customs and rules," the purported family declaration said.

The Misurata commanders also told foot soldiers to hold to the official line that one of Gaddafi's own retinue fired the fatal shot.

An order said that the rank and file should maintain the official version that "no one" from the city killed Gaddafi.

Imran Abushallah, 32, a one-eyed man who was in the militia unit that stormed the drain, yesterday denied that anyone had pulled a trigger while Col Gaddafi was captured.

"Gaddafi already had a wound in his side. He was very confused," he said. "When I put my hand on his shoulder he was very surprised."

Fighters at a farm on the outskirts of the city of Misurata that serves as headquarters of the al-Ghiran brigade base were showing off Gaddafi's boots, gold-plated gun and beige scarf.

Souvenir photographs are taken standing in front of the pickup with dried blood stains still visible on the bonnet.

Gaddafi's satellite phone - a Thuraya - has also been on display.

"The last phone call received on his Thuraya came from Syria. It was a lady on the phone," according to a brigade member.

Meanwhile, while at the World Economic Forum in Jordan, Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said he expected to step down from his position today.

It is a move that he had planned to make once his government took full control of the country.

Asked to say when he expected to stand down, Prime Minister Jibril told Reuters: "Today, today."

He also said that Libyans should be allowed to vote within months. "The first election should take place within a period of eight months, maximum, to constitute a national congress of Libya, some sort of parliament," he said.

"This national congress would have two tasks - draft a constitution, on which we would have a referendum, and the second to form an interim government to last until the first presidential elections are held."

Libya's National Transitional Council has said it plans to declare the full "liberation" of Libya on Sunday.