Libya to form interim government within eight months

The Libyan authorities should be allowed to form an interim government after a national congress is elected within eight months, said a top leader of Libya's ruling National Transitional Council on Saturday. "After voting on the National Congress, we will start to draft a constitution and then form an interim government to manage the country's affairs until the presidential elections are held," Mahmoud Jibril, head of the NTC's executive committee, said at the World Economic Forum in Jordan. Currently, restoring stability and order, removing weapons from the streets and starting a nationwide reconciliation process top the NTC's agenda, Jibril said. "It is not an easy task to rebuild Libya and collecting the arms needs cooperation of the Libyan people as there are so many armed groups in the country," he added. Libya's new rulers are scheduled to announce over the weekend the "liberation" of the country after the death of fallen leader Muammar Gaddafi. The Arab world's longest ruler was captured alive but died of bullet injuries in his hometown Sirte in northern Libya on Thursday and his body has been transferred to Misrata, a town which suffered heavily during clashes between Gaddafi's forces and fighters of the now ruling National Transitional Council (NTC). In the meantime, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Friday the military alliance's Libya mission is very close to completion, and that it has taken a preliminary decision to end it on Oct. 31. Gaddafi's death and the withdrawal of NATO forces leave a period of power vacuum in Libya, raising fears that clashes among different ethnic groups trying to seize power may broke out. Libya's ruling authorities have postponed at least two times establishment of an interim government as political groups disagreed on key posts in the new cabinet.