NATO does not know whether Moamer Kadhafi is still in Libya as the fallen Libyan leader has disappeared from public view, an alliance spokesman said on Tuesday.

Colonel Roland Lavoie, the NATO mission's spokesman, said the alliance had received, at "various points" in the conflict, intelligence confirming that Kadhafi was still in Libya, but that today his whereabouts remained a mystery.

"To be frank we don't know if he has left the country," Lavoie told reporters via videolink from the operation's headquarters in Naples, Italy.

"He has not made public appearances in the country for a while and this raises questions about his whereabouts. But we don't have sure information about where he is at this time," he said.

Kadhafi has only been heard from in audio recordings broadcast by a friendly channel, Syria-based Arrai Oruba television. And his most recent statement was read out by the channel's owner on Monday.

While Kadhafi's location remains the source of heavy speculation, members of Kadhafi's family and senior regime officials have fled to neighbouring Algeria and Niger in recent days.

Lavoie repeated NATO's position that it was not trying to track down Kadhafi, as he insisted the alliance was given a UN mandate to protect civilians from attacks.

"We are not in the business of targeting or chasing Kadhafi," he said.

His loyalists, meanwhile, are struggling to keep a grip on their last bastions, with the area under their control shrinking by the day, Lavoie said.

Pro-Kadhafi fighters are concentrated in a triangle running from Bani Walid, a town southeast of Tripoli, to the coastal town of Sirte further east and the far-off desert town of Sebha in the south, Lavoie said.

But advances made by rebel forces in the last two days cut off access to the Sirte-Bani Walid axis and loyalist forces' control of Sebha is no longer assured, he said.

"Essentially the area of operation of Kadhafi is shrinking," the Canadian colonel said.

Lavoie also dismissed an attack by Kadhafi fighters on the eastern oil hub of Ras Lanuf which appeared to be either a commando raid or an act of sabotage, but did not represent a territorial gain for former regime forces.

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