The comments by State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland came after a Russian envoy said he had been assured that the Kadhafi`s regime was in direct talks with the rebels, and Kadhafi`s son proposed internationally supervised elections to break the deadlock.
"It`s a little late for any proposals by Kadhafi and his circles for democratic change. It`s time for him to go," said Nuland.
Nuland portrayed the Libyan leader as increasingly isolated with the defection of some 50 senior government officials amid a NATO air campaign to dislodge him from power after more than four decades.
"So the guy is getting increasingly lonely, increasingly isolated. His days are numbered," she said.
In Tripoli, Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi al-Mahmudi said Kadhafi`s departure from power was a "red line" that could not be crossed.
But Kadhafi`s son, Seif al-Islam, told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera "elections, immediately and with international supervision" was the only painless way out of the impasse.
"We could hold them within three months. At most by the end of the year. And the guarantee of transparency could be the presence of international observers," he was quoted as saying.
Russia`s Mikhail Margelov, in Tripoli for one day after visiting the rebels in their Benghazi stronghold last week, meanwhile said he had been assured that "direct contacts between Benghazi and Tripoli are already underway."
"The Libyan prime minister told me that a round of such contacts concluded yesterday in Paris," he said, adding that French President Nicolas "Sarkozy has been informed of the outcome of these contacts."
He did not disclose the nature of the talks, which could not be immediately confirmed by the rebels` National Transitional Council. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
