Three private jets belonging to Muammar Gaddafi have left for Cairo, amid rumours that the Libyan leader may have fled the country.

One of the aircraft landed in Malta, where Libyan government envoys held talks with senior officials from the Maltese government. The plane then took off for Portugal, according to Al Jazeera, which quoted its correspondent in Malta.

Another aircraft landed in Brussels, where it is thought that envoys will hold talks with EU diplomats, while the destination of the third plane is still unknown.

And today at 10, Mahmud Jibril and Ali Essawi, who are in charge of international affairs at the National Transition Council, which is made up of opponents of the Gaddafi regime, will be received by French President Nicholas Sarkozy at the Elysée.

In the meantime, authorities from the Libyan regime have placed a reward of 500,000 dinars (around 290,000 euros) for the capture and handover of the leader of the Libyan National Council (the provisional rebel government), Mustafa Abdel Jalil.

Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi hit an oil deposit in the Libyan oil city of Brega. The report was made to ANSA in Benghazi by the spokesperson of the ad interim National Council.

Various TV networks also reported attacks on the oil stocks in the Sidra oil terminal (Es Sider), near Ras Lanuf, a city held by the rebels for days that is being hammered by Gaddafi's forces. It is not clear whether one or more oil tanks were hit by an air raid, a rocket or cannon fire.

The rebels accused forces loyal to Gaddafi, by Libya's national television station placed the blame on ''elements of Al Qaeda'' for the explosion of the oil deposit in Sidra. Sources of the ad interim National Council, the provisional rebel government in Benghazi, accuse Gaddafi of playing a ''dirty game'' by hitting oil facilities.

Meanwhile the rebels managed to gain access to Ben Jawad, thanks to cover provided by weapons and military forces. At present the town is the theatre of clashes with heavy weapons between Gaddafi's army and the rebels. The report was made by Al Jazeera.

''Allegations'' on the arrival of rebels in Ben Jawad are also spreading on Twitter. In particular, the group of young objectors named 'Shabablybia' is reporting witness accounts from the opposition's 'Al Manara' website according to which there are ''violent clashes between Gaddafi's forces and the rebels''.