Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday said Russia had invited members of Libya's transitional government to Moscow for energy talks, the Interfax news agency reported.

"They suggested holding meetings. We invited representatives to Moscow on their request. We will discuss all this with them," Lavrov was quoted as telling journalists at a regional summit in Dushanbe.

A council tasked with drafting a constitution for Libya should be elected within eight months ahead of presidential and legislative polls in early 2013, a rebel leadership official said Friday.

"We have outlined a clear road plan, a transition period of about 20 months," Guma al-Gamaty, the National Transitional Council's representative in Britain, told BBC radio.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati stressed on Friday the importance of separating the Lebanese situation from the developments in Syria.

“We shouldn’t interfere in anyone’s (internal) affairs so that no one meddles in ours,” Miqati told the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat.

A disfigured Ethiopian nanny on Thursday recounted being beaten and severely burnt while working for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's son Hannibal and his wife.

Lying prone in her bed at Tripoli's only burns unit, Shweyga Mullah, 30, said wife Aline Skaff, a Lebanese lingerie model previously accused of abuse, twice poured scalding water on her, causing third degree burns which doctors said would take years to treat.

NATO's operation in Libya will continue for as long as the civilian population there is in danger, the alliance's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and national leaders said Thursday.

"We have announced that operations will continue as long as necessary, as long as there is a threat to civilians," he said, after talks in Paris between Libyan rebel leaders and the international community.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told talks on the future of Libya on Thursday that the United Nations is ready to lead an immediate international mission to help get the country back on its feet.

Ban said he had talked with Libyan, Arab, African and European leaders and "all agreed at this critical moment the international community must come together with an effective, well-coordinated program of action.

Moammar Gadhafi's speech on Thursday revealed the Libyan leader's "despair" in the face of a successful revolution, a senior rebel leader said.

"Gadhafi's speech is a sign of misery and despair," Ahmed Darrat, who is overseeing the interior ministry for the rebels until a new government is elected, told Agence France Presse in Tripoli.

Libyan rebels have extended a deadline for forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi to surrender by a week to September 10, a rebel spokesman said on Thursday.

"We give them one week more," Mohammed Zawawi told AFP, stating that the ultimatum applied to towns holding out in the south and the center, as well as to Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte.

The European Union on Thursday lifted an assets freeze against 28 Libyan firms, including ports and banks, to provide funds to the rebel leadership and kickstart the economy.

"Today, the EU has lifted its asset freeze on 28 Libyan entities. Our goal is to provide resources to the interim government and the Libyan people and help to make the economy function again," said EU chief diplomat Catherine Ashton.

Algeria never envisaged granting asylum to Moamer Kadhafi, its foreign minister told French radio on Thursday, Algeria said Thursday it is ready to recognize Libya's former rebels when they form a broad-based government and insisted it had not offered an escape route to ousted strongman Moammar Gadhafi.

Algeria's Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci told Europe 1 radio that Libya's National Transitional Council had vowed to set-up a "government representative of all regions" and added: "When it has done so, we'll recognize it."