The Head of Libya’s Transitional Council Mustafa Abdul Jalil said on Wednesday he would use force in order to defend national unity, following the declaration of autonomy for an eastern region.

The Head of Libya’s Transitional Council Mustafa Abdul Jalil said on Wednesday he would use force in order to defend national unity, following the declaration of autonomy for an eastern region.

"We are not prepared to divide Libya," Abdul Jalil said as he called on leaders in the eastern Cyrenaica region to engage in dialogue and warned them against remnants of the regime of slain leader Muammar Gaddafi.

"They should know that there are infiltrators and remnants of Gaddafi's regime trying to exploit them now and we are ready to deter them, even with force," he said in televised remarks during a conference in Misrata to draft a national charter.

A meeting on Tuesday attended by some 3,000 tribal and political leaders in the main eastern city of Benghazi declared Cyrenaica, which stretches from Sirte to the Egyptian border, an autonomous region.

Abdul Jalil reacted Tuesday to the declaration in Benghazi by charging that some Arab nations were supporting and financing sedition in eastern Libya.