BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) ― Libya’s transitional leaders named a new cabinet Monday and vowed to step down after the country is secured, a move designed to show the North African nation is moving on even though fighting persists and Moammar Gadhafi remains at large.

The announcement was made jointly by the head of the National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, and de facto Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril in a news conference following weeks of political infighting and delays over the formation of a new government.

In the end, the cabinet lineup did not contain many changes, prompting many Libyans to question why it took so long, coming about six weeks after revolutionary forces seized the capital, Tripoli, and forced Gadhafi into hiding.

Jibril, who graduated from and taught strategic planning at the University of Pittsburgh for several years, remains in his position but also takes over as foreign minister, meaning his current deputy and Foreign Minister Ali al-Issawi is out. Ali al-Tarhouni, a U.S.-educated economist, will continue acting as oil minister until the National Oil Company is ready to take over.

The new leaders said they would remain in place until the country is secured and liberation is declared, then a new transitional government would be formed within a month.

“We have signed a pledge to the Libyan people that we will not be part of the future government not in any way,” Abdul-Jalil said to applause.

The pledge was intended to reassure the public they will not suffer under another dictatorship.

Revolutionary forces are still battling loyalists of Gadhafi on two major fronts as well as pockets deep in the southern desert. But Jibril said he had asked that liberation be declared after Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte is captured because that would ensure that all sea, land and air entry ports are secure.

He acknowledged fighting would continue in Bani Walid, where the terrain and the harboring of suspected high-level regime figures ― possibly including Gadhafi’s son Seif al-Islam ― has led to a weekslong standoff. But he said it was important to declare victory and begin rebuilding the country.

“Bani Walid doesn’t have any international exits,” Jibril said. “And it is very important to begin and speed up the transitional process and begin the democratic stage.”

The NTC has promised to hold elections eight months after the end of fighting.

A new minister for Libyans killed and wounded was also named. He is Abdel-Rahman al-Keissah, described as a lawyer who was wounded in the fighting. Hamza Abu Fas will replace Sheik Salem al-Sheiki as the minister of religious affairs.

When asked if members of the cabinet might remain in their posts after liberation, Jibril said that would be up to the future leadership and would depend on their performance.

“We ask Libyans to understand that this is a sensitive and critical stage,” Abdul-Jalil told reporters in the eastern city of Benghazi, which was the birthplace of the revolution.

NATO, meanwhile, expressed concern about the possibility that thousands of portable surface-to-air missiles left over from Gadhafi’s regime are missing in Libya. NATO airstrikes played a key role in the rebellion that ousted Gadhafi.

“It is a matter of concern if stockpiles of weapons are not properly controlled and monitored,” Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.

He was responding to a report that thousands of SAM-7 shoulder-launched, surface-to-air missiles allegedly disappeared after the defeat of loyalist forces by Libyan rebels supported by NATO airstrikes.



Gadhafi birthplace overrun



SIRTE, Libya (AFP) ― Anti-Gadhafi fighters Monday overran the ousted strongman’s birthplace of Qasr Abu Hadi, medics said, marking a symbolic victory in their battle to eradicate the last vestiges of his 42-year rule.

The battlefield success ― which saw five new regime fighters killed ― came as Libya’s new rulers announced a shake-up of their executive, which is overseeing the country’s transition until an interim government is formed once Moammar Gadhafi’s remaining bastions of support are subdued.

“Abu Hadi is completely free (of loyalist fighters),” said Dr Taha Sultan at a field hospital on the eastern outskirts of the Mediterranean city of Sirte.

“Our medical team came through the village and they tell us it is free,” Sultan told AFP.

The capture of Qasr Abu Hadi, where Gadhafi was reportedly born in a nomad tent in 1942 when it was still a tiny desert hamlet, is the latest in a string of loyalist communities to be mopped up by National Transitional Council troops as they close in on the toppled despot’s diehard fighters inside Sirte.

Sultan said two NTC fighters were killed in front line fighting in another part of eastern Sirte on Monday, and six were wounded.

Misrata military council spokesman Adel Ibrahim said three fighters were killed and 31 wounded in fighting on the southern edges of the city.

Qasr Abu Hadi prospered under the rule of its most famous son and the surrounding countryside is dotted with large villas in gated compounds.

Most were empty, their occupants fled. But some housed large numbers of families huddled together for safety amid evident fear of retribution from the victorious NTC forces.

Most residents refused to speak to AFP and those who did were clearly afraid.

“We are caught in the crossfire. Gadhafi’s men hide in our farms and rebels fire shells from the other side,” one man told AFP, declining to give his name.

“Two days ago, five members of a family in a house next to mine were killed when a rocket struck it. We don’t know who fired that rocket,” said the man, dressed in a traditional dishdasha.

He said he had 30 families hiding in his large villa but would not allow AFP in.

“They all are scared. There are many children too with them and they have no milk or food. I only have bread and tea to offer to them.”