Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) claimed major advances over the weekend in Sirte as its forces are pushed deeper into the hometown of fugitive dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

NTC forces said they had captured Sirte's Ouagadougou Convention Center, a walled complex which had previously hosted international summits for African and Arab heads of state.

Gadhafi loyalists had turned the convention center into a base from which they directed sniper and mortar fire against advancing NTC units. NTC commanders also reported capturing Sirte's university as well as its central hospital where Gadhafi loyalists had been coordinating their defense of the city.

"The road is now open for fully controlling Sirte," said Mahmoud al-Fayad, a military commander loyal to Libya's interim leaders.

Capturing Sirte, a Mediterranean port city located 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli, is key to establishing the physical unity of a post-Gadhafi Libya.

Earlier on Sunday, NTC forces claimed to have arrested Abdel Rahman Abdel Hamid, a nephew of Gadhafi and the commander of a pro-Gadhafi brigade in Sirte. Other senior members of Gadhafi's deposed regime are also though to be hiding in the city.

NTC forces have set up roadblocks to prevent Gadhafi loyalists from fleeing the city.

Pullback in Bani Walid

Meanwhile, NTC forces were forced on Monday to withdraw from ground gained over the weekend in Bani Walid, another Gadhafi stronghold located in the desert south of the capital, Tripoli.

A military official told the AFP news agency that 17 anti-Gadhafi troops were killed and over 50 injured in clashes with loyalists, prompting a "tactical pullback."

The NTC has delayed announcing a new government until all of Libya can be declared "liberated." Although previous attempts by the country's transitional rulers to capture the two remaining Gadhafi strongholds had failed, Libya's de facto leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil expressed optimism regarding the success of the current push.

"I do believe, God willing, that the liberation of these cities will happen within this week," Abdul-Jalil said.

Author: Spencer Kimball, Gabriel Borrud (AP, AFP, dpa)
Editor: Michael Lawton