Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is ready to cede power in exchange for security guarantees; an unnamed senior Russian official was quoted as saying in Tuesday's edition of the Kommersant business daily.

The press report came one day after NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen discussed Libya in Russia with President Dmitry Medvedev.

The Libyan government on Tuesday denied accusations that it had executed detainees as punishment for their families' failure to join a rally in support of veteran leader Moammar Gadhafi.

"This report is baseless and no newspaper or (other) news agency reported anything of the kind," a statement from the government said, accusing Agence France Presse of "putting its credibility at stake."

Russia and NATO on Monday failed to narrow their differences over the Western air campaign in Libya, as alliance warplanes stepped up their bombing of regime targets.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused NATO of interpreting a U.N. resolution any way it wished, after talks with NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen that showed up differences rather than secure any agreement on a solution.

The head of Libya's rebel council said Monday that there is now no possibility of Moammar Gadhafi being granted internal exile in Libya, following an International Criminal Court warrant for his arrest.

In a statement, Mustafa Mohammed Abdel Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council, said: "There is absolutely no current or future possibility for Gadhafi to remain in Libya."

Turkey's top diplomat on Sunday recognized Libya's rebel council as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people, as he vowed to do "everything" possible to end the fighting.

Ahmet Davutoglu arrived in Benghazi, giving the National Transitional Council the much sought-after political and economic support of a major regional player and former colonial power.

Buoyed by French arms drops and intensified NATO air strikes on the regime's frontline armor, Libya's rebel army said it is poised for an offensive that could put it within striking distance of Tripoli.

The rebels' announcement late on Saturday came as a prolonged deadlock on the battlefield prompted mounting pressure from countries outside the NATO-led coalition for a negotiated solution to a conflict that has dragged on for four and a half months.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi threatened retaliation against Europe on Friday unless NATO ceases its operations, warning loyalist forces can launch stinging attacks like "locusts and bees."

"The Libyan people are capable, one day, of taking the battle to Europe and the Mediterranean," Gadhafi said in a speech broadcast by loudspeaker to thousands of loyalists gathered in Tripoli's emblematic Green Square.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on Friday urged his supporters to get back the weapons that France supplied to rebels in the Nafusa mountains who are battling his regime.

"March on the jebel (Nafusa) and seize the weapons that the French have supplied. If later you want to pardon them (the rebels), that's up to you," the embattled Gadhafi said in a message played over loudspeakers in central Tripoli.

France insisted Friday that weapons it supplied to rebels fighting Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi were for "self-defense" in line with a U.N. resolution, after Russia and others voiced concern.

"Civilians had been attacked by Gadhafi's forces and were in an extremely vulnerable situation and that is why medicine, food and also weapons of self-defense were parachuted," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said.

Britain has given the Libyan rebels 5,000 sets of body armor, as well as police uniforms, high-visibility vests and communications equipment, Foreign Secretary William Hague said Thursday.

He said this was "fully in line" with the U.N. Security Council resolution governing international action on Libya and the arms embargo.