CAIRO, Mar 03, 2011 (AFP) - Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi and his sons are determined to hold onto power and save their skins by every means possible, even if it takes a bloodbath, regime insiders and diplomat say.

They say that the unprecedented revolt against his 41-year rule and mounting world pressure for him to quit has swayed neither the Arab world's longest ruling leader nor his sons, and are capable of concocting dire scenarios to ensure their survival.

"He will not leave, and when he says that he will fight to the end, he means it," said an official close to the revolutionary committees which serve as the backbone of Kadhafi's regime.

"The world thinks he's finished and that he is cowering in the capital," said the official who backs the uprising but has kept his position within the regime fearing reprisals if he were to quit.

"The fact is, Kadhafi still has the financial and logistical means and manpower needed to resist much longer, more than one can imagine."

The International Criminal Court's prosecutor said in The Hague on Thursday that Kadhafi, his sons and key aides will be investigated over allegations they committed crimes against humanity while fending off the uprising.

Kadhafi can still count on support from his native Sirte, a Mediterranean city 600 kilometres (370 miles) east of Tripoli, and the deep south town of Sebha, and is still in control of the capital.

On Wednesday he appeared at a public ceremony in Tripoli and warned, in a two-and-a-half-hour speech broadcast live on state television, that the "battle will be very, very long."

"If the Americans or the West want to enter Libya they must know it will be hell and a bloodbath -- worse than Iraq."

Kadhafi, was the bete noir of the West in the 1980s, branded the godfather of international terrorism by the United States, but he survived sanctions as well as US bombing raids that killed an adopted daughter.

The Libyan official said Tripoli "is not the last obstacle" facing those who want to nail the Kadhafi clan, which includes Seif al-Islam, one of eight children.

Any attempt by rebels to march from the revolution's stronghold in Benghazi, 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) east of Tripoli, to the capital could be smashed by Kadhafi loyalists in Sirte.

The official described the Mediterranean city of Sirte as a Kadhafi "bastion", but said "his real strength is in Sebha" a desert region in the deep south.

"It is a crucial place for Kadhafi. His tribe comes from there and he can use it to bring in mercenaries from Chad or Niger."

Kadhafi can even go back to his Bedouin roots and hunker down in Sebha "waging war from there against his people and keeping the option open of fleeing (south) to Chad," added the official.

On Monday the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute think tank said that aircraft were known to be flying weapons from Belarus to Sebha in February.

One of Kadhafi's sons, Khamis, commands a battalion of army loyalists as well as well-trained and equipped mercenaries in Sebha, according to several Libyan sources.

Seif al-Islam and another brother, Mutassim, also command army battalions. Mutassim, a career soldier and doctor who was trained by Egyptian officers, holds the title of national security adviser.

"Kadhafi and his sons have the financial means to guarantee that men under their command will never defect," said a Western diplomat with experience of the country.

Members of the regime's revolutionary committees can also raise up armies of supporters and are known to have substantial weapons caches stored in their suburban homes outside Tripoli.

"One solution to get rid of the regime is for one of Kadhafi's guards to put a bullet in his head," said the Western diplomat.

But the thought was dismissed by another diplomat: "Kadhafi and his sons will not give up power even if they were forced to go on exile.

"The regime is very opaque and unpredictable. Anything can happen."

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Copyright AFP 2011.