Gaddafi to be buried as per Islamic tradition

A day after the Libyan fugitive dictator Muammar Gaddafi was killed, Libya's new leaders have promised that he will be buried according to Islamic norms on Friday.

The death, two months after Gaddafi's ouster, finished off the nearly 42-year regime that had turned the oil-rich country into an international pariah and his own personal fiefdom. It also thrusts Libya into a new age in which its transitional leaders must overcome deep divisions and rebuild nearly all its institutions from scratch to achieve dreams of democracy.

The governing National Transitional Council said interim leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil will formally declare liberation on Saturday in the eastern city of Benghazi, where the revolution against Gaddafi's rule began in mid-February.

The NTC has always said it will form a new interim government within a month of liberation and will hold elections within eight months.

Acting Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, who confirmed Gaddafi's death yesterday, said he will step down to make way for others to guide the oil-rich North African nation toward democracy.

"The forming of the new government is subject to the NTC and I myself will not be part of that new government," Jibril said at a news conference in Tripoli. "I would like to call on Libyans to put aside the grudges and only say one word, which is Libya, Libya, Libya."