LONDON - Libya has sent a senior aide to one of leader Muammar Gaddafi's sons to London for talks with British officials, the Guardian newspaper reported on Friday.

Citing unidentified British government sources, the newspaper said Mohammed Ismail, an aide to Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, visited London in recent days in what it said was one of many contacts between Libya and the West in the past two weeks.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman neither confirmed nor denied the report, saying: "We are not going to provide a running commentary on our contact with Libyan officials."

She added: "In any contact that we do have, we make it clear that Gaddafi has to go."

On Wednesday, Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, one of Gaddafi's closet advisers, defected and flew to London.

Al Jazeera television reported on Thursday that "a number of figures" close to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had left Libya for Tunis, but it was not possible to confirm this.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told ABC television network this month she was aware that people close to Gaddafi had been trying to make contact.