Fighting raged on Monday between forces of Muammar Gaddafi and opposition fighters, as the state television showed footage of the long-time ruler playing Chess with the head of the World Chess Federation. \r\n

Fighting raged on Monday between forces of Muammar Gaddafi and opposition fighters, as the state television showed footage of the long-time ruler playing Chess with the head of the World Chess Federation (FIDE).

Battles also took place in the Berber mountains southwest of Tripoli, in nearby Yafran, and at Dafnia near Misrata, Libya's third city, opposition sources told AFPnews agency.
Government forces posted a few kilometers east of Zintan, which remains under opposition control, fired Grad and Katyusha rockets at the town.

AFP reported at least seven Libyan rebels were killed and 49 wounded in the bombardment.

 In Tripoli, the regime spokesman said its forces had eliminated opposition "pockets of resistance" at Zawiyah west of the capital.
Mussa Ibrahim told reporters that Gaddafii's forces had "total control" of the area from Ajdabiya in the east to the Tunisian border in the west.

He denied reports that the fighters were gaining ground, while at the same time acknowledging clashes at Zawiyah but playing down their intensity.
"It is pockets of resistance. The rebels there are no more than a hundred. The army has killed some of them, captured others and is negotiating the surrender of others," Ibrahim said.

He also reiterated that the regime rejected any talks about Gaddafi leaving the country.
"No one has the right to demand that the leader stand down. No one can come here with a plan that includes his departure," he said, adding such an idea is "immoral, illegal and has no sense."

GADDAFI PLAYS CHESS
Meanwhile, state television broadcast late Sunday images showing Gaddafi and FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov being watched by the Libyan leader's eldest son Muhammad.
Gaddafi, who was last seen in public when was shown on television welcoming South African President Jacob Zuma to Tripoli on May 30, wore a brown cloak and dark sunglasses.

The television did not say where the chessboard meeting took place but Ilyumzhinov told Russia's Interfax news agency that he had played against Gaddafi in Tripoli on Sunday.
"The meeting lasted around two hours, we played some chess with Gaddafi," Ilyumzhinov, who is on a visit to Tripoli in his capacity as FIDE president, told Interfax.

"Gaddafi stated that he is not going to leave Libya, stressing that it is his motherland and a land where his children and grandchildren died. He also said that he does not understand which post he needs to step down from."
"I am neither premier nor president nor king. I do not hold any post in Libya and therefore I have no position which I should give up," Ilyumzhinov quoted Kadhafi as telling him.

The Russian eccentric who once claimed he hosted extraterrestrials, also sat down for a game of chess with Gaddafi’s son Muhammad and the two played the Sicilian defence, Interfax said.
Ilyumzhinov, who also met with foreign and education ministers, said he saw a lot of destruction in Tripoli.

UNREPENTANT
On the other hand, Ilyumzhinov said he had no qualms about playing the game with Gaddafi.

"I would happily meet with anyone," Ilyumzhinov told Moscow Echo radio by telephone from Libya.
"I am not a politician, I went there as a sportsman”.
Ilyumzhinov said that he found Gaddafi to be "calm... normal and adequate. We played chess and we talked."