Muammar Gaddafi accepted a "road map" for a ceasefire with revolutionists, a delegation of African leaders said before they were to meet revolutionists who said they’d reject it

Embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi accepted a "road map" for a ceasefire with revolutionists, a delegation of African leaders said before they were to meet revolutionists who said they'd reject it.

The announcement followed a meeting between the leaders and Gaddafi on Sunday in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, just hours after NATO air raids targeted his tanks. The revolutionists then were able to push back government forces who had been advancing quickly towards their eastern stronghold

"We have completed our mission with the brother leader, and the brother leader's delegation has accepted the road map as presented by us," the South African president Jacob Zuma said. Gaddafi made his first appearance in front of the foreign media in weeks when he joined the AU delegation at his Bab al-Aziziyah compound.

The committee said in a statement that it had decided to go along with a road map adopted in March, which calls for an end to hostilities, "diligent conveying of humanitarian aid" and "dialogue between the Libyan parties".

The African Union (AU) delegation was due to meet the revolutionists on Monday.

The revolutionists, however, said Monday that any ceasefire would require the withdrawal of government troops from the streets and freedom of expression, according to Shamsiddin Abdulmolah, a spokesman for the opposition's Transitional National Council.
  
"If people are free to come out and demonstrate in Tripoli, then that's it. I imagine all of Libya will be liberated within moments." He also demanded the release of hundreds of people who have gone missing since the outbreak of the popular uprising and are believed to be held by Gaddafi's forces. "The world has seen these offers of ceasefires before and within 15 minutes (Gaddafi) starts shooting again," Abdulmolah said.

The AU mission, headed by Mauritanian president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz arrived in Tripoli on Sunday.

On the battlefront, NATO aircraft destroyed 25 tanks on the outskirts of Ajdabiya and Misurata, helping to halt major assaults by Gaddafi's forces.

NATO said it had hit 11 tanks outside Ajdabiya, which Gaddafi's troops had earlier threatened to overrun, and 14 more on the outskirts of Misurata, a lone revolutionists bastion in western Libya which has been under siege for six weeks.

Opposition fighters said four of their men were killed in the battle for Ajdabiya.
They fought off an assault by Gaddafi's forces on the besieged western city of Misurata on Saturday, losing up to 30 men.