prominent

members of Gaddafi's government have been in contact to discuss handing themselves in. Paul Wood reports.

The rebels believe that Colonel Gaddafi is not in Sirte, and therefore they can afford to wait to take the town. Tribal leaders will have until 10 September to persuade the loyalist troops in Sirte to give up their weapons. In that time, the rebels will be

keeping up

the pressure. They intend to cut off the water and electricity to Sirte, and also crucially to advance closer to it.

In a new audio message, Colonel Gaddafi said he was ready for a long battle even if Libya burnt.

Syrian security forces are reported to have made many arrests in Hama in their search for a top legal official there who announced his resignation in a video posted on the Internet on Wednesday. The official, Adnan Bakkour, said he was resigning because of crimes against humanity by government forces, but the government has issued its own version of why he's

speaking out

, as Owen Bennett-Jones reports.

There are two entirely

contradictory

accounts of Mr Bakkour's current situation. The opposition says he broke ranks with the government on Monday and then issued a video statement in which he claimed, amongst other things, that there were hundreds of bodies in mass graves in the public parks in the city of Hama;

but the official Syrian news agency insists that the attorney general's statement was made at gunpoint and has quoted his driver as saying seven terrorists with Kalashnikovs kidnapped him.