TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who once vowed to die fighting on Libyan soil, now wants to face international justice instead and avoid any chance of meeting the same grisly end as his father, Libyan officials said.

An official of the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) said on Wednesday that Saif al-Islam, the only one of Muammar Gaddafi's eight children still on the run, had proposed surrendering to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has indicted him for war crimes.

Surrender by 39-year-old Saif al-Islam would close another chapter in the four-decade history of Gaddafi family rule, as the United Nations discusses an end to its Libyan mandate that allowed NATO to bomb the country and help rebels to take power.

He was widely seen as Muammar Gaddafi's favored son and his heir apparent.

Saif al-Islam wanted to surrender to the Dutch-based ICC with his relative, former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, said Abdel Majid Mlegta, an official of the NTC which overran the last Muammar Gaddafi stronghold of Sirte a week ago.

“They are proposing a way to hand themselves over to The Hague,” said Mlegta.

The ICC indicted Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam and Senussi for their roles in using force to try to put down the uprising which began in February.

An ICC spokesman said it had no confirmation of any talks about Saif al-Islam's surrender.

ANOTHER U-TURN

NTC officials have said Saif al-Islam is hiding in Libya's southern desert after failing to find a safe haven in a neighboring country like Algeria or Niger, which have offered refuge to the other four Gaddafi children who survived the eight-month civil war.

Any surrender would mark a U-turn by Saif al-Islam, an internationally well-connected philanthropist and liberal reformer who turned abruptly into a soldier ready to die rather than capitulate when rebels rose up against his father.

“We fight here in Libya; we die here in Libya,” he told Reuters Television in an interview earlier this year.

He now appears to prefer the prospect of a Dutch prison cell rather than risk falling into the hands of NTC forces.

NTC fighters seized Muammar Gaddafi last week after they overran his hometown of Sirte. Within hours he was dead, although it remains unclear who killed him, and his rotting corpse was put on public display for four days before being buried in a secret desert grave on Tuesday.

At the United Nations, envoys said the Security Council planned to end U.N. authorization this week for a no-fly zone and NATO intervention in Libya despite calls from the NTC for it to wait.

The Security Council made the authorization in March to protect Libyans from the forces that Muammar Gaddafi had deployed to suppress pro-democracy uprisings across the country.

Libya's people were “looking forward to terminating the no-fly zone over Libya as well as terminating the mandate accorded by Security Council resolution 1973 to protect civilians as soon as possible,” Libyan Deputy U.N. Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi told the 15-nation council on Wednesday.

“In accordance with the initial assessments, the date of October 31 is a logical date to terminate this mandate,” he said.

But he said the NTC had not yet made an official decision on whether to request termination of the U.N. mandate, which authorized members of NATO and other U.N. member states to take “all necessary measures” to protect Libyan civilians.

NATO bombing prevented Muammar Gaddafi's forces from taking the rebel stronghold of Benghazi and allowed often disorganized rebel units to eventually control the whole county.

Dabbashi said the government needed more time to assess the security situation in Libya and its ability to monitor its borders.

Western diplomats said issues the NTC had suggested it would like NATO to help with, including border security, fell outside the U.N. mandate to protect civilians and enforce a no-fly zone.

“The job was to protect civilians and from NATO's point of view, that mission has been accomplished,” a diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity. “There's no point in delaying termination of the mandate.”

(Additional reporting by Samia Nakhoul in Dubai, Regan Doherty in Doha, Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations and David Brunnstrom in Brussels; Writing by David Stamp; Editing by Ralph Gowling)

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BRUSSELS – NATO unexpectedly postponed a definite decision to end its bombing campaign in Libya as consultations continued Wednesday with the U.N. and the country’s interim government over how and when to wind down the operation.

Last week, the alliance announced preliminary plans to phase out its mission on Oct. 31. NATO’s governing body — the North Atlantic Council, or NAC — was expected to formalize that decision Wednesday.

Air patrols have continued in the meantime because some alliance members were concerned that a quick end to NATO’s seven-month operation could lead to a resurgence in violence.

On Wednesday, spokeswoman Carmen Romero said NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen was consulting with the United Nations and Libya’s National Transitional Council.

“The NAC will meet with partners on Friday to discuss our Libya mission and take a formal decision,” she said, adding that there was an “ongoing process” in the U.N. Security Council.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday that some of Libya’s leaders had called for NATO to continue its mission “during this interim as they try to establish some new governance.”

And at the United Nations, Libya’s deputy U.N. ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi asked the Security Council on Wednesday to hold up on lifting the no-fly zone and ending its authorization to protect civilians.

However, a NATO official who could not be identified under standing rules, said the alliance had not received any formal request from the Libya’s transitional government to prolong its air and naval patrols past the end of the month.

NATO’s 26,000 sorties, including 9,600 strike missions, destroyed about 5,900 military targets since they started on March 31. These included Libya’s air defenses and more than 1,000 tanks, vehicles and guns, as well as Moammar Gadhafi’s command and control networks.

The daily airstrikes enabled the rebels’ ragtag forces to advance and take Tripoli two months ago. On Sunday, Libya’s interim rulers declared the country liberated, launching the oil-rich nation on what is meant to be a two-year transition to democracy.

In Qatar, Libya’s interim leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil attended an international planning conference Wednesday with representatives of Gulf states and Western powers that participated in the Libyan operation.

The meeting is expected to focus on how the allies could help the new authorities bring stability to the nation.

Qatar, a leading Arab backer of the uprising to topple Gadhafi’s regime, contributed warplanes to the NATO-led air campaign and helped arrange a critical oil sale to fund the former rebels.

The United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Sweden also joined in the NATO war effort.

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Police in the capital are on a heightened state of alert since the al-Shabab warning

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Kenyan incursion raises Somalia stakes

Q&A: Who are Somalia's al-Shabab?

Abducted from Kenya: Profiles

A man suspected of being a member of a terror cell has been arrested in Kenya's capital, the police chief says.

A cache of arms, including 13 hand grenades, an AK47, rifle, a machine gun, four pistols and ammunition were found in his flat in Nairobi, he said.

The arrest comes after two grenade attacks in the city killed one person and injured 29 others on Monday.

Police denied that they were linked to the Somali Islamist group, al-Shabab, who have threatened to attack Kenya.

“This is a person who is a member of one of the cells who have been involved in terrorist activities in the country,” Police Commissioner Matthew Iteere told reporters at a house in Kayole, a suburb about 15km (10 miles) from Nairobi's city centre.

Last December three people died during a grenade attack at a bus in Nairobi. It was never clear who was behind it.

Correspondents say that although Monday's attacks were small, they are nevertheless causing a great deal of anxiety in Kenya.

The Kenyan government sent troops to Somalia more than a week ago to pursue the militants after accusing them of being behind a spate of abductions on its territory.

Al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaeda and controls much of southern and central Somalia, denies involvement in the kidnappings but has warned of reprisals if Kenyan troops do not withdraw from Somalia.

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Ennahda has pledged to retain a secular democracy

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Tunisia turmoil

Profile: Tunisia's Ennahda Party

Q&A: Tunisia elections

Press hails “new era” in Tunisia

Loving and loathing Islamists

Partial official results from Tunisia suggest victory for the moderate Islamist party Ennahda, in the first democratic elections prompted by the Arab Spring uprisings.

The electoral commission said Ennahda was well ahead in the vote for a new assembly that will write a constitution and appoint a caretaker government.

However Ennahda is not expected to have an overall majority. Coalition talks with secular parties have begun.

Sunday's vote was hailed by observers.

The polls were Tunisia's first democratic elections, and followed the fall of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who was overthrown in January after mass demonstrations. He had been in power for 23 years.

However, unlike its eastern neighbour Libya, Tunisia's transition from authoritarian rule has been largely peaceful.

Caretaker government

On Tuesday the electoral commission said Ennahda had won 15 out of 39 domestic seats declared so far in a new assembly of 217 seats.

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Analysis

Allan Little BBC News, Tunis

Tunisians led the Arab Revolution with their revolution in January. Their dictator was removed in less than a month.

With this election, Tunisians have led again. For what is being born here is something new – a democracy in the Arab world.

There is much promise in that, and great optimism here.

Tunisia leads again in democracy

This brings Ennahda's total to 24, after the party won nine of the 18 seats reserved for Tunisians living abroad, in results declared on Monday.

The party's leader, Rachid Ghannouchi, has pledged not to set up an Islamist state and to respect multi-party democracy.

Ennahda officials named have named two centre-left secularist groups, the Congress for the Republic (CPR) and Ettakatol, as possible coalition partners.

The CPR is in second place in the vote, officials said. Its leader, Moncef Marzouki, said he was ready to work with Ennahda and others.

“We wish to have a national government as wide as possible with all the parties,” he told Reuters news agency.

Ettakatol leader Mustapha Ben Jafaar told AFP news agency coalition talks had already started.

The US and EU have praised Tunisia on the peaceful election process, with President Barack Obama saying the vote was “an important step forward”.

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