The African Union has officially recognized Libya's National Transitional Council as the country's legitimate leadership, the group's chairman said Tuesday.

The announcement was transmitted by the office of South African President Jacob Zuma, six days after he hosted a meeting of the AU's special panel on Libya in Pretoria.

U.S. President Barack Obama hailed a "new chapter" for Libya Tuesday as the victorious rebels' red, black and green flag was hoisted at the United Nations ahead of its annual General Assembly.

Fugitive strongman Moammar Gadhafi issued an audio message dismissing the new government as a "charade" that would not outlive the NATO air and naval support that brought it to power.

Fugitive strongman Moammar Gadhafi denounced Libya's new leadership as a "charade" backed by NATO air strikes which will not last forever, in an audio message aired on television Tuesday.

The remarks came ahead of the first talks between US President Barack Obama and Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the head of the National Transitional Council (NTC) -- now recognized as Libya's legitimate leaders.

Amnesty International on Tuesday attacked the European Union's "abysmal" response to the mounting refugee crisis on Libya's borders caused by the recent Arab Spring uprisings.

A new briefing paper issued by the rights group called on EU member states to "urgently address" the worsening situation by opening their borders to the mainly sub-Saharan refugees who were forced by the recent unrest to leave their homes.

A Turkish military cargo plane dropping humanitarian aid over the Libyan town of Bani Walid came under fire from the ground, the Turkish news agency Anatolia reported Monday.

The incident happened on Saturday when one of two Turkish C-130 transport planes parachuting 22 tons of aid to residents, was fired on, the agency said, citing a journalist on the plane.

The unveiling of a new Libyan government due on Sunday has been put off "indefinitely," Mahmoud Jibril, the number two official in the National Transitional Council (NTC), said.

"The announcement of a new transitional government has been postponed indefinitely in order to finalize consultations," Jibril told a news conference in the eastern city of Benghazi.

U.S. President Barack Obama embarks on a diplomatic marathon this week at the United Nations, touting his approach to Libya, but hoping to contain Palestinian ambitions for statehood.

Leaving behind for 48 hours domestic battles with Republican opponents and an uphill battle to see his jobs plan move through Congress, Obama will huddle with a host of world leaders on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly and speak before the chamber early Wednesday.

Forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi fired rockets and scored casualties in a fierce counter-attack in the fugitive ex-Libyan leader's stronghold of Bani Walid Saturday, an Agence France Presse correspondent said.

Ambulances rushed dead and wounded fighters as explosions and gunfire thundered in the air, after the attack on a position of interim government fighters several kilometers from the city center.

Turkey Saturday was parachuting in 22 tons of humanitarian aid to the Libyan city of Bani Walid, one of the last holdouts of fallen leader Moammar Gadhafi's supporters, the prime minister's office said.

Two military cargo planes left Ankara on Saturday to bring food to around 10,000 people in Bani Walid in need of urgent help, the office said in a statement on its website.

Forces of Libya's new leadership battled diehard remnants of the fallen regime of Moammar Gadhafi on Saturday, after the U.N. eased sanctions and assigned its seat at the world body to the former rebels.

National Transitional Council forces swept further into Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte as at least 6,000 fighters battled in and around one of the ousted despot's final strongholds.