Libya's interim leaders hope to ask the Security Council to end U.N. authorization for a no-fly zone and NATO intervention by October 31 but need a few days to decide, a Libyan U.N. envoy said on Wednesday.

Libyan Deputy U.N. Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi told the 15-nation council that Libya's people are looking forward to terminating the no-fly zone over Libya as well as terminating the mandate accorded by Security Council resolution 1973 to protect civilians as soon as possible.

In accordance with the initial assessments, the date of October 31 is a logical date to terminate this mandate, he said.

Dabbashi said that Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) had not yet made an official decision on whether to request termination of the U.N. mandate under resolution 1973, which authorized members of NATO and other U.N. member states to take all necessary measures to protect Libyan civilians.

We request the council to give a chance to the NTC to take a resolution on this, he said. This requires some days. Perhaps this will take place before the 31st of this month.

Apparently responding to calls from various senior U.N. officials for an investigation into the circumstances behind the death of ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi after his capture on October 20, Dabbashi denied that NTC soldiers had summarily executed him. Gaddafi died of wounds he had sustained prior to his capture, he said.

Gaddafi was injured in the course of the clashes between his loyalists and the revolutionaries, Dabbashi said. When he was arrested, he was bleeding from his abdomen and head and he passed away (upon) his arrival to the hospital in Misrata.

According to initial reports, none of the revolutionaries fired at him after arresting him, he said.

He added that the Libyans were conducting an investigation.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Will Dunham)

Libya