Libya Rebels Demand Algeria Return Gadhafi Family

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A senior rebel officer also said Gadhafi's son Khamis, a feared military commander, had been killed in a clash outside of Tripoli. The report could not be independently confirmed.

Meanwhile, rebel forces converged on Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte from east and west, intent on seizing one of his last bastions of support either by force or by negotiation.

Gadhafi's whereabouts have not been known since the rebels captured Tripoli and his 42-year-old rule collapsed a week ago after a six-month uprising backed by NATO and some Arab states.

Algeria's acceptance of Gadhafi's wife and offspring angered the rebel leadership, who want him and his entourage to face justice for years of repressive rule and who fear that he could orchestrate a new insurgency unless he is captured.

"We have promised to provide a just trial to all those criminals and therefore we consider this an act of aggression," spokesman Mahmoud Shamman told Reuters. "We are warning anybody not to shelter Gaddafi and his sons. We are going after them ... to find them and arrest them."

"We have heard that Algeria will harbor them till they go to another country. They are trying to go to another country, possibly an East European country," he said.

NTC Chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil called on the Algerian government -- which has not recognized the council as Libya's legitimate authority -- to cooperate with it and hand over any of Gadhafi's sons on its wanted list.

Asked if he knew where Gadhafi senior was, he told al-Jazeera TV: "If we knew where Gadhafi was now our revolutionaries would be on their way to capture him. We have no information that Moammar Gadhafi is in Libya or in any other place."

Jalil appealed to NATO to keep up its air campaign in support of the rebels, saying Gadhafi was still a threat.