At least 12 people were killed and 16 wounded when two groups of fighters opposed to Moammar Gadhafi turned on each other in Libya's west, two officials said on Sunday.

The fighting, which has its roots in ancient rivalries and pitted combatants from the towns of Gharyan and Kikla on the one side and from Asabah on the other, broke out on Saturday, according to the chief of the Gharyan council and confirmed by the head of the military council of Asabah.

International institutions agreed Saturday to raise their financial support to Arab nations in transition to democracy to $38 billion, France's finance minister said.

Nine international institutions agreed at a G8 meeting in Marseille to "bring the financial aid available to $38 billion in the period 2011-2013 to Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, and Jordan", Francois Baroin said.

The corpse of missing Imam Moussa al-Sadr was found among a number of corpses in the Libyan town of Tarhuna, reported al-Hurra television.

The Kuwaiti al-Qabas newspaper had reported that 3,715 corpses were found in a freezer in Libya, one of them was that of Sadr.

Heavy fighting was underway Friday outside Bani Walid, a stronghold of deposed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, as forces loyal to the interim government were poised for an assault on the town if it does not surrender.

And while world police body Interpol called for the fugitive Gadhafi’s arrest for crimes against humanity, following a request by the International Criminal Court, there were reports a number of his generals had fled Libya.

China is ready to help Libya rebuild after Moammar Gadhafi's downfall and it supports the United Nations taking a leading role in reconstruction efforts, Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said Friday.

"It depends on the needs of the Libyan people themselves, whatever they need we will be willing to help them," Cui told reporters on the sidelines of the Pacific Islands Forum in Auckland.

NTC fighters claimed to have captured a key objective Thursday in their drive on Sirte, the hometown of fugitive Moammar Gadhafi, as the ex-Libyan leader dismissed as lies reports he had fled to Niger.

At the same time, talks on a peaceful surrender of the town of Bani Walid, held by Gadhafi loyalists, have ended without success, a National Transitional Council military chief said, raising the prospects of an assault on it.

Former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi sold more than 20 percent of Libya's gold reserves, worth more than $1 billion, in the final days of his regime, the country's central bank governor said on Thursday.

Qassem Azzoz said 1.7 billion dinars worth of fold, or around 29 tons, were sold to local merchants as the regime ran short of cash.

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is planning to embark on a tour of Arab Spring countries next week including Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, a government official said.

"The prime minister had already planned a visit to Egypt but negotiations and preparations are under way for this trip to include Tunisia and Libya as well," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Agence France Presse on Wednesday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Tuesday stressed that “the Libyan authorities will not be lax in helping to unveil the circumstances of the case” of the 1978 disappearance of Imam Moussa Sadr and his two companions “after restoring security and stability across Libya.”

Jumblat voiced his remarks in a statement issued by the PSP following a visit by the Druze leader to Libya, where he held talks with Mustafa Abdul Jalil, head of the rebel National Transitional Council, his deputy Abdul Hafiz Ghogha and a number of NTC members.

Libya's new authorities resumed talks on Tuesday with local leaders in Bani Walid, one of the last bastions of Moammar Gadhafi, bidding to end a tense standoff over the oasis town.

Negotiations for the peaceful surrender of Bani Walid, which anti-Gadhafi fighters encircled last week, had collapsed Sunday, and the latest talks were aimed at reassuring Warfalla tribesmen, elders and the local community.