* Rebels say Gaddafi could stay in "Libyan oasis"
* Talks with Gaddafi side continue via intermediaries
PARIS, June 24 (Reuters) - Libyan rebels rule out any role
for Muammar Gaddafi in a future government but could let him
remain "in a remote part of Libya" as part of a settlement,
France's Le Figaro reported on Friday.
The newspaper quoted Mahmoud Shammam, spokesman for the
rebel National Transitional Council (NTC), as confirming
indirect talks were going on with Gaddafi's side.
"Yes, these contacts are under way through intermediaries.
But the talks are never direct. They happen at times in South
Africa, sometimes in Paris, where Gaddafi has recently sent a
representative to talk to us," Shammam said.
"We consider that he has to resign himself to leaving or
accept retirement in a remote part of Libya. We have no
objection to him retreating to a Libyan oasis under
international control," he added.
But he stressed: "Our conditions have not changed: Gaddafi
and his family members can absolutely not participate in a
future government."
Gaddafi vowed in a state television broadcast this week to
fight on until the end. A rebel uprising backed since March by a
NATO-led bombing campaign has so far failed to dislodge him.
Shamman said rebels would talk with "any technocrat or
Libyan official who does not have any blood on their hands" over
the creation of an interim government with the task of
organising elections.
A former foreign minister who has defected said on Thursday
he believed Gaddafi was negotiating asylum either elsewhere in
Africa or in Belarus.
"I think that he will leave Libya in a few weeks,"
Abdurrahaman Shalgam told Italy's Corriere della Sera TV.
(Reporting by Nick Vinocur; writing by Mark John; Editing by
Mark Trevelyan)
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