Tunisian foreign minister Mouldi Kefi said he believed that Libyan oil minister Shokri Ghanem was no longer working for the Gaddafi regime.

It is said that Ghanem fled to Tunisia, last week abandoning Gaddafi’s government. Where Ghanem, is has been a mystery since he left the country.

Although the government had denied the rebels' claim that minister was defected. On last Thursday, they said he was on an official trip to Tunisia, Europe and Egypt.

“I believe and I suspect, Ghanem left Libya and he is not working with the Gaddafi regime, probably that's why he came to Tunisia, said Kefi in a news conference in Tokyo where he met Japanese government officials.

Kefi said that Ghanem was staying in a hotel on a small island of Tunisia but when asked whether Ghanem plans to travel to other countries, Kefi said: Only God knows what is in Ghanem's mind.

Shokri Ghanem is the country's most important energy official, as he was the head of Libya's NOC state energy firm and its delegate to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.