Forces of Libya’s new leadership battled diehard remnants of the fallen regime of Moamer Gaddafi on Saturday, after the UN eased sanctions and assigned its seat at the world body to the former rebels

Forces of Libya's new leadership battled diehard remnants of the fallen regime of Moamer Gaddafi on Saturday, after the UN eased sanctions and assigned its seat at the world body to the former rebels.
  
National Transitional Council forces swept further into Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte as at least 6,000 fighters battled in and around one of the ousted despot's final strongholds.
  
Commander Salem Jeha, a member of Misrata Military Council, told AFP at the Gate 30 checkpoint west of Sirte: "We are now concentrated in a handful of buildings in the city and on the outskirts including Wadi Abu Hadi where Gaddafi's forces are concentrated." He said NTC combatants seized Sirte airport late on Friday, and added that there was "no possibility for them (Gaddafi's forces) to continue their resistance."
  
The 15-member Security Council unanimously passed a resolution on Friday to ease an assets freeze and arms embargo against Libyan companies and the new government. It maintained sanctions against Gaddafi and a no-fly zone which has been used to justify NATO air strikes against forces loyal to the fallen strongman.
  
Security Council resolution 2009 also established the UN Support Mission in Libya -- UNSMIL -- a UN mission to go to Libya to help the interim government arrange elections and write a new constitution. The resolution eases sanctions against major enterprises such as the Libyan National Oil Corporation, the central bank and the Libyan Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund in a bid to kick-start the economy.

Earlier, the UN General Assembly voted by 114 countries to 17, with 15 abstentions, to let the interim government take up Libya's UN seat. But the UN vote allows interim government leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil to attend next week's UN gathering of world leaders in New York. Jalil is to meet US President Barack Obama and other key figures on the sidelines of the General Assembly.

NATO said in an operational update on Saturday warplanes dealt "key hits" on 20 targets in the Sirte area the previous day. They included five command and controle nodes, three radar systems, four armed vehicles and eight air missile systems.
  
Columns of NTC fighters backed by tanks launched an early morning assault on Sirte on Friday, a day after a first attack was repulsed. The NTC said its fighters had also entered the oasis town of Bani Walid southeast of Tripoli, but they made a "tactical withdrawal" in the evening due to sniper fire. In Tripoli, meanwhile, an NTC official said a new government to be announced on Sunday would consist of 30 members and be representative of all political groups and regions, and that women would be included.