A spokesman for the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi says they have captured French, British, and Qatari nationals.

Moussa Ibrahim apparently told a pro-Gaddafi television station on Saturday that they had detained 17 "mercenaries", including what he called French and British "technical experts" - who had been working alongside NATO in the Gaddafi bastion of Bani Walid.

NATO, French and British officials had on Saturday denied a report by the Syrian-based Arrai TV that some NATO troops had been captured by Gaddafi loyalists.