Gaddafi's sons determined to destabilise

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son and assumed successor of Muammar Gaddafi. Photo / AP

The surviving children of Libya's dead dictator Muammar Gaddafi are determined to destabilise the country, National Transitional Council chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil says.

"It is true that Muammar Gaddafi and his children will no longer have a place in the future Libya, but they are still determined to destabilise it and cause many concerns," he said without elaborating.

He was speaking to members of the government and Libyan personalities on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the country's independence, which Libya is celebrating for the first time in 40 years.

Three of the sons of Gaddafi, who was killed on October 20, are also dead.

Only one is in the country - Saif al-Islam, the despot's long-assumed successor, who was captured last month and is being held in Zintan.

Gaddafi's second wife Safiya, daughter Aisha and her brothers Mohammed and Hannibal have been in Algeria since the end of August along with several other family members, while another son, Saadi, has found refuge in Niger.

At the end of November, Aisha Gaddafi called for the new Libyan government to be overthrown, in an audio message broadcast by the Syria-based television channel Arrai.

In September she had called the new Libyan authorities traitors, prompting a rebuke from Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci who called her comment "unacceptable".

After Gaddafi's downfall, Libya's new rulers organised ceremonies to commemorate December 24, 1951, when the country gained independence under former king Idris from the French and British, who had administered the territory following Italy's defeat in the Second World War.

- AAP