Rebels moving its govt to Tripoli

TRIPOLI / SABRATHA, Libya - The Libyan rebels' interim government announced it is moving from the country's second city of Benghazi to the capital Tripoli, another step toward taking control as bursts of heavy gunfire erupted around Muammar Gadhafi's last stronghold early on Friday.

Before daybreak, eruptions of gunfire were heard coming from near the Tripoli neighborhood of Abu Salim, where rebels had battled Gadhafi's fighters holed up in residential buildings for most of the day on Thursday.

Gadhafi is still on the run, but a minister in the rebel government said his capture is not a prerequisite for setting up a new administration in the capital. "We can start rebuilding our country," Finance Minister Ali Tarhouni of the National Transitional Council (NTC) told a news conference late on Thursday. "He (Gadhafi) is the one who is basically in the sewer, moving from one sewer to another."