Libya's Muammar Gadafy is willing to hold elections and step aside if he lost, his son said today in an offer unlikely to placate his opponents but could test the unity of the Western alliance trying to force him out.
The proposal - which follows a string of concessions offered by the Libyan leader that Western powers have dismissed as ploys - comes at a time when frustration is mounting in some Nato states at the progress of the military campaign.
Four months into Libya's conflict, rebel advances towards Tripoli are slow at best, while weeks of Nato air strikes pounding Col Gadafy's compound and other targets have failed to end his 41-year-old rule over the oil-producing country.
A series of explosions was heard from Col Gadafy's compound in Tripoli in the early hours of today and plumes of smoke rose into the sky, a Reuters reporter in the city said.
"They (elections) could be held within three months. At the maximum by the end of the year, and the guarantee of transparency could be the presence of international observers," Col Gadafy's son Saif al-Islam told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
He said his father would be ready to step aside if he lost the election but would not go into exile. "I have no doubt that the overwhelming majority of Libyans stand with my father and sees the rebels as fanatical Islamist fundamentalists, terrorists stirred up from abroad," the newspaper quoted Saif al-Islam as saying.
The offer was made as Mikhail Margelov, the envoy leading Russia's efforts to end the conflict, arrived in Tripoli for talks with Col Gadafy's government.
The Kremlin, which says Col Gadafy should resign but opposes Nato's action in Libya, has said it is ready to help negotiate the Libyan leader's departure.
Mr Margelov said Col Gadafy's government rejected the idea of his departure from power during talks, Russian news agencies reported.
"From the point of view of the Libyan leadership, there cannot be any talk of Gadafy's departure today," Interfax quoted Mr Margelov as saying.
It was not clear what form the vote proposed by Saif al-Islam Gadafy would take. Libya has never held elections under Col Gadafy and has no elected institutions. There was no immediate reaction to the offer from the Nato military alliance or the rebels.
Saif al-Islam is one of three Libyan leaders wanted by an international war crimes prosecutor, but before the conflict he had frequent contacts with Western governments and helped negotiate the end of international sanctions seven years ago.
Libya-watchers say Col Gadafy is using his political skills, honed during decades when he was able to survive despite being an international pariah, to try to exploit divisions within the fragile Western alliance ranged against him.