Reporters received confirmation Libyan rebel leaders are meeting secretly in the Tunisian island of Djerba since Sunday for talks with representatives of Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
The two sides are hoping to find a way to end the six-month-long bloody civil war that has torn the country apart.
“Talks took place last night at a Djerba hotel under heavy security,” according to a security source quoted by AFP and numerous other news agencies.
“Corteges of cards crossed the border Sunday at Ras Jedir, near Djerba.” The source, who was not authorized to speak with the media, requested anonymity.
Libya's state-run TAP news agency noted the country's Health Minister, Ahmed Hijazi, was in Djerba on Sunday along with Foreign Minister Adelati Obeidi and Social Affairs Minister Ibrahim Cherif.
Qaddafi's Interior Minister, Nassr al-Mabrouk Abdullah, who was also in Tunisia appaerently defected on Monday -- arriving in Cairo with 9 family members on a tourist visa.
There were clashes Sunday night in the coastal town of Ben Gardane in southeastern Tunisia, close to the border with Libya. Libyan government supporters fought with Libyan rebels celebrating the “end of Qaddafi,” according to local residents quoted by the Al Ahram newspaper.
The violence ended in the wee hours of the morning when Tunisian police moved in, a witness said.
Qaddafi meanwhile continues to predict a “swift end” for his enemies and to maintain a defiant stance against stepping down. He exhorted the Libyan people in a broadcast on national television Sunday night to arm themselves and liberate the country “from traitors and from NATO.”