17:40 ET<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nLibyan Oil Minister Shukri Ghanem has left the country, amid reports that he has defected.<\/p>\n
Tunisian officials say Mr Ghanem – a former prime minister – crossed into Tunisia by road, before going to the island of Djerba.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for the Libyan rebels told the BBC the minister had defected, and was on his way to a European country.<\/p>\n
The Libyan government said he had been on official business in Tunisia, but that Tripoli had lost touch with him.<\/p>\n
“Shukri Ghanem has left Libya,” a Tunisian official told AFP news agency. The official added that Mr Ghanem had gone to a hotel in Djerba but “not tried to contact the Tunisian authorities”.<\/p>\n
A UK-based spokesman for the rebel Transitional National Council, Jumaa el Gamaty, told the BBC: “Mr Shukri Ghanem has defected. I think as we speak he’s in transitory European country.”<\/p>\n
Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said Tripoli had lost contact with him.<\/p>\n
Mr Ibrahim told the New York Times newspaper that the government’s fight against rebels “doesn’t depend on individuals, even if they are high-ranking officials”.<\/p>\n
Mr Ghanem is also the head of Libya’s National Oil Corporation.<\/p>\n
A number of senior officials have abandoned the government of Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi since the start of the uprising in February – including Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, Interior Minister Abdul Fattah Younis, Justice Minister Mustafa Abdel Jalil, and a number of ambassadors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
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