Italian defence minister : Granting asylum to gadfdafi still available option

Italian Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa has viewed that granting asylum to Libyan leader muammar gaddafi ''is still an available option'' adding that his country will consider whether such an option is applicable. In a statement issued here on Friday, Ignazio La Russa called for the need that political and diplomatic action should go side by side with the military operations in Libya and declined to give further details in this respect. Earlier Thursday, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said that Gaddafi still poses danger to security of Libya and its people stressing the need to escalate pressure on Gaddafi to arrest him. In Algiers, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has reportedly refused to take Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s call to avoid the latter’s request of granting him asylum in that country. Algeria had earlier granted sanctuary to Gaddafi’s wife, daughter, and two of his sons and some of his grandchildren to cross the border earlier this week and seek sanctuary, the matter which angered Libya''s National Transitional Council. But Algeria’s Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci said on Thursday there was no question of granting Gaddafi himself asylum. Meanwhile Niger has signalled that it could be prepared to offer a potential safe haven for Col Muammar Gaddafi as Libyan rebels claimed to have the deposed dictator surrounded. The country''s government said it would not automatically refuse Gaddafi temporary asylum or try to prevent him and his entourage from entering its territory. In Belgrade , Defense Minister Dragan ?utanovac has said that there is no possibility for Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi to seek political asylum in Serbia. Dragan ?utanovac was reacting to reports in Croatian media today that cited a member of the leadership of Libya''s rebels as saying that Gaddafi might seek asylum in "Chad, Algeria, Venezuela, Serbia or Croatia".