(Reuters) - A Libyan commander leading the attack on Muammar Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte said on Tuesday he was in talks with elders inside the city about a truce, but the head of another anti-Gaddafi unit rejected negotiations.
Sirte, one of the last bastions of support for the deposed Libyan leader, is encircled by forces with the interim government and under bombardment from NATO warplanes.
Touhami Zayani, commander of the El-Farouk brigade on the western edge of Sirte, told Reuters an elder from Gaddafi's tribe, whom he did not identify, had contacted him on his satellite phone from inside Sirte.
"He called me and said we are looking for a safe passage for the families and for the militia to leave the city," he said.
Zayani said he had given his agreement for families from Gaddafi's tribe, who make up the majority of Sirte's population, to be allowed to leave and was still negotiating terms for armed Gaddafi loyalists to surrender.
"We didn't really get into details and we didn't talk much about how they will leave but I think the scenario will be that they have to give up their weapons," Zayani said.
Reflecting the lack of coordination that has dogged the Libyan government's efforts to establish its authority, units in the east of Sirte fought on, even while their allies in the west of the city ceased fire to await the outcome of truce talks.
Asked about the prospect of a truce with pro-Gaddafi fighters, Omar Al-Qatrany, an anti-Gaddafi commander on the eastern front line, said: "Those people don't want to negotiate and we don't care about them any more."
"Our main concern is to evacuate families out of Sirte and then we will bomb the city," he said.
There were clashes at a roundabout 2 km (1.5 miles) east of the center of Sirte, where anti-Gaddafi fighters were pinned down for a second day by intense sniper and artillery fire.
A Reuters reporter nearby said forces with the new government, the National Transitional Council (NTC), brought up reinforcements to the roundabout to try to break through, including two tanks and about a dozen trucks carrying infantry.
Snipers though held up the advance, forcing the attackers to take cover behind metal shipping containers. "Where is it coming from?" one NTC fighter asked after a bullet whistled nearby from a pro-Gaddafi sniper.
Al-Jazeera television station reported that NTC fighters had taken control of the eastern portion of Sirte. This could not immediately be confirmed by Reuters reporters at the scene.
SYMBOLIC VICTORY
Taking Sirte, 450 km east of Tripoli, would bring Libya's new rulers closer to gaining control of the whole country, something still eluding them more than a month after their fighters seized the capital.
The capture of Gaddafi's biggest powerbase would also be a hugely symbolic victory.
Gaddafi turned his birthplace, once a sleepy coastal town, into an informal second capital. It was in the marble halls of Sirte's Ouagadougou conference center that he hosted heads of state for summits designed to burnish his image as "African king of kings."
It is likely some members of Gaddafi's extended family are in Sirte but there is no information about the location of the former ruler himself. He is the subject of an Interpol arrest warrant and has not been seen in public for months.
Libya's new rulers are under pressure to bring the fighting to an end. Humanitarian organizations have raised the alarm over conditions for civilians in Sirte and in Bani Walid, which lies southeast of Tripoli.
Scores of civilians in cars laden with personal belongings streamed out of Sirte to both the east and west over the past few days.
"We are very concerned about the people inside and near Bani Walid and Sirte," Georges Comninos, who heads the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Libya, said in a statement.
NTC fighters and people who have fled Sirte have alleged that pro-Gaddafi fighters were trying to prevent civilians from leaving, effectively using them as human shields.
