Ousted Libyan PM makes brief stopover in Malta

Ousted Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zaidan made a brief stopover in Malta Tuesday night, local media reported Wednesday, while fleeing to an unnamed country in the European Union after being sacked by the Libyan congress earlier this week. Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told state TV that he spoke briefly with Zaidan during his two-hour refueling stop here on his way to "another European country." The Libyan embassy in Malta was unable to give further information when contacted by Xinhua. Last month, Zaidan made another unscheduled visit to Malta when his flight from Zurich to Tripoli was diverted because of unrest in the capital. Libyan Defense Minister Abdallah al-Thinni was sworn in as interim premier on Tuesday, reports said. Libya's General National Congress (GNC) has also placed Zaidan under investigation for corruption, media reports said, making his return unlikely in the near future. Zaidan was dismissed when the GNC passed a non-confidence motion against him Tuesday after he failed to resolve an oil export crisis which saw the first illegal shipment of oil by rebel eastern federalist tribes in control of the export terminal at Sidra. The former premier had previously threatened to bomb the oil tanker but the air force refused to follow the order, according to media reports, avoiding an environmental disaster. Rebel groups in the oil-rich east have blockaded oil fields and export terminals around the Gulf of Sirte, to independently export Libya's valuable light sweet crude. The government had warned that the Libyan navy would intervene to prevent any exports from the blockaded region. Oil production totals have fallen by some 66 percent since the beginning of the blockade last July. Once one of the most developed countries in Africa, OPEC member Libya has been racked by violent instability since the war for regime change three years ago executed the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Zaidan was himself briefly arrested and held by one of the armed groups (LROR) last October, according to media reports. In southern Libya, other groups of Gaddafi-loyalist or Green resistance fighters have been gaining ground, and seized the Tamenhint air base in the city of Sabha on January 18 before being repulsed by the Libyan armed forces, reports said. The successful independent export of oil by a rebel faction seeking effective partition may strengthen the likelihood of a carve up of the North African country, analysts said, if not civil war to reclaim the oil fields under national control