Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) today named a new government featuring several surprise appointments that suggested the line-up was aimed at trying to soothe rivalries between regional factions.
Earlier, the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor conceded that the captured son of Muammar Gadafy, Saif al-Islam, may be tried in Libya rather than in The Hague, meaning he faces the death penalty if convicted.
In forming a government, the NTC faced the tricky task of trying to reconcile regional and ideological interests whose rivalry threatens to upset the country's fragile stability, three months after the end of Gadafy's 42-year rule.
"All of Libya is represented," Prime Minister Abdurrahim El-Keib told a news conference as he unveiled the line-up. "It is hard to say that any area is not represented."
The new cabinet will include as defence minister Osama Al-Juwali, commander of the military council in the town of Zintan.
Mr Juwali appeared to have staked his claim to the job after his forces captured Saif al-Islam at the weekend and flew him to their hometown.
The foreign minister was named as Ashour Bin Hayal, a little-known diplomat originally from Derna, in eastern Libya.
His appointment was unexpected as diplomats had predicted the job would go to Libya's deputy envoy to the United Nations, Ibrahim Dabbashi, who had rallied diplomats to turn against Gadafy early in the revolt against his rule.
The decision to leave out Mr Dabbashi was a "surprise," but was probably motivated by the need to appease representatives of Derna, a big anti-Gadafy powerbase, one diplomat told Reuters.
Hassan Ziglam, an oil industry executive, was named as finance minister, and Abdulrahman Ben Yezza, a former executive with Italian oil major ENI, was made oil minister.
Western countries, which backed the revolt against Gadafy and have a big stake in seeing his replacements succeed, welcomed the new government, saying it would guide the oil exporting country towards democracy.
Libya is struggling to build new institutions out of the wreckage of Gadafy's one-man rule, when corruption was rampant and state institutions were left to decay.
The Hague-based ICC has indicted Saif al-Islam for crimes against humanity. But chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said on a visit to Tripoli that Saif al-Islam could be tried inside Libya as long as the trial complies with ICC standards.
"Saif is captured so we are here to ensure cooperation. Now in May, we requested an arrest warrant because Libyans could not do justice in Libya. Now as Libyans are decided to do justice, they could do justice and we'll help them to do it, so that is the system," he told reporters on his arrival in Tripoli.
"Our International Criminal Court acts when the national system cannot act. They have decided to do it and that is why we are here to learn and to understand what they are doing and to cooperate."
Libyan officials have promised a fair trial but the country still has the death penalty on its books, whereas the severest punishment the ICC can impose is life imprisonment.
"The law says the primacy is for the national system. If they prosecute the case here, we will discuss with them how to inform the judges and they can do it. But our judges have to be involved," said Moreno-Ocampo.
Saif al-Islam was captured in an ambush deep in the Sahara desert and is now being held in the town of Zintan, in the Western Mountains region where his captors are based.
An NTC spokesman in Tripoli had described the arrest of Saif al-Islam, the last of Muammar Gadafy's offspring whose whereabouts had been unaccounted for, as "the last chapter in the Libyan drama".
An official in Zintan told Reuters steps were already underway for Saif al-Islam's prosecution. "A Libyan prosecutor met with Saif (on Monday) to conduct a preliminary investigation," said Ahmed Ammar.
Reuters