Benghazi, Libya (ANTARA News/AFP) - Libya`s rebel National Transitional Council vowed Monday they would forgive supporters of Colonel Moamer Kadhafi as long as they turned their backs on the leader whose forces have been pushed back under fierce coalition airstrikes.

"We ask the people around Kadhafi to abandon him. If they do so, we will forgive their wrongdoings," the main spokesman for the government-in-waiting, Abdulhafiz Ghoga, told reporters in the eastern rebel stronghold of Beghazi.

He said rebels were now "30 kilometres (20 miles) from Sirte," Kadhafi`s hometown and a city halfway along Libya`s long coastline that is one of the final barriers to the rebel push towards Tripoli, further to the west.

Ghoga said that Misrata, a city lying between Sirte and Tripoli that has been fought over by pro- and anti-regime forces, on Monday welcomed a humanitarian ship.

He did not detail what the vessel was carrying or who organized its passage, saying only a "European aid ship." (S008/K004)

Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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