The International Criminal Court on Wednesday threw out an appeal filed by Libya against the court's demand that Moammar Gadhafi’s jailed son be transferred to The Hague.

The Libyan state had filed an appeal on April 6 against the ICC's request for the immediate transfer of Seif al-Islam, wanted for crimes against humanity and detained in Libya in the aftermath of his father's downfall.

The first batch of 10,000 former Libyan rebels arrived on Wednesday in Jordan for training in order integrate into their country's interior ministry, the kingdom's security department said.

Under a deal signed between Amman and Tripoli in December, the former rebels who helped topple Moammar Gadhafi's regime last year will receive training at an international police center east of Amman, deputy police chief Major-General Mohammed Raqqad said in a statement.

Fresh fighting flared in the Libyan Desert town of Kufra overnight leaving three people dead and 17 others wounded, local sources told Agence France Presse on Saturday.

"The situation is very bad," Toubu tribe leader Issa Abdelmajid Mansour told AFP in reference to fresh fighting in Kufra, where tribal clashes claimed more than 100 lives in February.

Libya's interim prime minister plans to reshuffle his cabinet which has come under fire over corruption scandals and failure to consolidate the national army, a government spokesman said.

Prime Minister Abdel Rahim al-Kib "has reviewed the performance of certain ministries" and "will announce a cabinet reshuffle soon," Nasser al-Manaa told journalists late Wednesday.

Seif al-Islam will face justice whether he is tried in The Hague or in Libya, International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said on Wednesday, insisting the decision lies with the ICC.

Libyan officials, however, remain adamant that he be tried in his country.

Hundreds of federalism backers who massed in east Libya on Tuesday insisted on the region's autonomy and challenged the framework for electing a constituent assembly.

Participants issued a statement stressing their "commitment to the autonomy of Cyrenaica stretching from the border with Egypt (in the east) to Sirte," the hometown of slain leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Some 100 Tunisian workers kidnapped by armed men in western Libya have been released, Tunisia said Wednesday after a diplomatic row in which Tripoli denied any abductions had occurred.

"The Tunisians kidnapped in Libya have been freed," Tunisia's interior ministry said in a statement.

Growth in the Middle East and North Africa took a dive in 2011 because of the Arab Spring protests and resulting political upheaval, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the region, stretching from Iran to Mauritania, grew by 3.5 percent last year, down from a healthy 4.9 percent in 2010, the IMF said in its World Economic Outlook.

Libyan authorities have met resistance in talks for the handover of Seif al-Islam, the son of slain leader Moammar Gadhafi, who is still being held in Zintan, a negotiator told Agence France Presse on Tuesday.

Zintan officials told representatives of the ruling National Transitional Council that people in the town "want Seif to be tried locally because the (interim) government is weak," an NTC member said on condition of anonymity.

Libyan officials on Tuesday denied that Tunisians were kidnapped in the border zone of the two countries as claimed by the Tunisian foreign ministry.

"We deny this information. There was no kidnapping of any Tunisians," interior ministry spokesman Abdelmonem Ayad told Agence France Presse without elaborating.