NATO's bombing campaign in Libya left 72 civilians dead last year, a leading human rights group said Monday, accusing the military alliance of failing to acknowledge the deaths.

In a 76-page report, Human Rights Watch urged NATO to provide "prompt and suitable compensation" to families for the civilian deaths, injuries and loss of property.

A candidate in the upcoming poll for a constituent assembly was murdered in Libya's southern desert on Sunday shortly after submitting his registration, a security official said.

"Khaled Abu Saleh was murdered 30 kilometers from Ubari," in the south of Libya, Mohammed Saleh, deputy chairman of the High Security Commission, told Agence France Presse.

More than a million Libyans have registered to participate in the first national elections since Moammar Gadhafi’s regime was toppled, a spokesman for the high election commission said on Thursday.

"There are now 1,167,999 registered voters," Ezzedine Shaaban told Agence France Presse.

Former Libyan rebels angry over unpaid stipends opened fire on the headquarters of the interim government on Tuesday after surrounding the building.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Niger officials on Saturday held talks in Tripoli on security issues including Saadi Gadhafi and other members of the former regime who are sheltered in Niger and wanted by Libyan authorities.

Libyan Prime Minister Abdel Rahim al-Kib said that his country takes "no chances" when it comes to the threat posed by remnants of the former regime sheltered in Niger.

A lawyer for Moammar Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam has called on the International Criminal Court to disqualify chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Campo from the case, alleging possible bias, the ICC said Saturday.

The submission made Thursday was published on the website of the ICC, which is in a tussle with the new Libyan authorities holding Seif al-Islam over the right to try him.

Federalists in Libya's eastern Cyrenaica region called on Thursday for a boycott of next month's constituent assembly elections, rejecting the transition plan set out by the interim authorities.

The Council of Cyrenaica, which wants autonomy for the oil-rich east, issued a statement calling on "all Libyans... to boycott elections" unless the ruling National Transitional Council changes its plans.

Libyan authorities on Thursday granted immunity to former rebels who fought to oust Moammar Gadhafi’s regime and unveiled legislation that cracks down on the fallen strongman's supporters.

"There is no punishment for acts made necessary by the February 17 revolution," read the law published on the National Transitional Council's website.

Moammar Gadhafi’s regime funded French President Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign, lawyers for former Libyan prime minister Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi said Thursday, quoting their client.

"Moammar Gadhafi, his regime and the officials who worked with him financed Sarkozy's election campaign in 2007," lawyer Bechir Essed told reporters in Tunis, where Mahmoudi is detained, mentioning the sum of some 50 million euros ($65 million).

Libya's ruling National Transitional Council on Wednesday criminalized the glorification of slain leader Moammar Gadhafi and his regime.

"Praising or glorifying Moammar Gadhafi, his regime, his ideas or his sons... is punishable by a prison sentence," said the text of the law read out to reporters by a judicial official following a high-level meeting.