African Union leaders have met embattled Libyan President Col. Muamar Gaddafi who reports say accepted their peace plan that calls for an immediate ceasefire.

The AU team led by South African President Jacob Zuma told journalists after the meeting that the Libyan government had been positive to the AU proposal to stop all military activities so that a political solution to the crisis is arrived at.

Zuma met Gaddafi for several hours at the Libyan leader’s Bab al-Aziziyah compound with four other African heads of state.

“The brother leader delegation has accepted the roadmap as presented by us. We have to give ceasefire a chance,” Zuma said, adding that the African delegation would now travel to the eastern city of Benghazi for talks with anti-Gaddafi rebels.

But reports indicated the AU team was not as successful with convincing the rebels as they were Gaddafi’s government, with some news agencies saying the rebels are insisting on discussing only after Gaddafi is out of power.

The British-based representative of the Libyan opposition leadership, Guma al-Gamaty, said it would look carefully at the AU plan, but would not accept any deal designed to keep Gaddafi or his sons in place, the BBC reported.

Zuma is leading a team AU team tasked to find solutions to the Libya crisis, including Mali’s President Amadou Toumani Toure, Congo’s Denis Sassou Nguessou, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni and Mauritania’s Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. Museveni’s who couldn’t make it to the Libyan meetings was represented by his Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Henry Okello Oryem.

Zuma who together with the AU team met the Libyan leader’s Bab al-Aziziyah compound urged NATO to stop air strikes on government targets to “give ceasefire a chance”.

Ultimate Media