TRIPOLI, Libya - The Libyan rebels' Transitional National Council on Monday rejected any transition under Muammar Gadhafi's sons after The New York Times reported that two of them had made such a proposal.

"This is completely rejected by the council," its spokesman Shamseddin Abdulmelah said in the rebels' stronghold in the eastern city of Benghazi.

Men flash victory signs as they look out from a Turkish ship carrying 250 wounded people from the besieged Libyan city of Misrata, during its arrival at a port in Benghazi April 3, 2011. The white ferry Ankara, which the Turkish government chartered and turned into a hospital ship, docked in the eastern Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi on Sunday to pick up more wounded. The ship will later head on to a port in Turkey where a field hospital had been set up. [Photo/Agencies]

"Gadhafi and his sons have to leave before any diplomatic negotiations can take place."

At least two of Gadhafi's sons are proposing a transition to a constitutional democracy that would include their father's removal from power, the New York Times reported late on Sunday.

Citing an unnamed diplomat and a Libyan official briefed on the plan, the newspaper said the transition would be spearheaded by one of Gadhafi's sons, Seif al-Islam.

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On Sunday, Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Abdelati Obeidi flew to Athens carrying a personal message from Gadhafi to Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou that Libya wanted the fighting to end, Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas said.

"It seems that the Libyan authorities are seeking a solution," Droutsas told reporters, adding Obeidi was next due to travel to Malta and Turkey.

But there was no indication on what Tripoli might be ready to offer - beyond a willingness to negotiate - to end a war that has become bogged down on a frontline in the eastern oil town of Brega.

Underlining the plight of civilians in western Libya, a Turkish ship that sailed into the besieged city of Misrata to rescue some 250 wounded had to leave in a hurry after crowds pressed forward on the dockside hoping to escape.

"It's a very hard situation ... We had to leave early," said Turkish consular official Ali Akin after the ship stopped to pick up more wounded in the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

Neither Gadhafi's troops nor the disorganized rebel force have been able to gain the upper hand on the frontline, despite Western air power in effect aiding the insurgents.

After chasing each other up and down the coast road linking the oil ports of eastern Libya with Gadhafi's tribal heartland further west, they have become bogged down in Brega, a sparsely populated settlement spread over more than 25 kilometers.

Yet Western countries, wary of becoming too entangled in another war after campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, have ruled out sending ground troops to help the rebels.

The United States, which has handed over command of the operation to NATO, said it had agreed to extend the use of its strike aircraft into Monday because of poor weather last week. But it has stressed its desire to end its own involvement in combat missions, and shift instead to a support role in areas such as surveillance, electronic warfare and refueling.

Stephen Dalton, the head of Britain's Royal Air Force, was quoted as telling Monday's Guardian newspaper that the air force was planning to continue its operations in Libya for at least six months.

Reuters-AFP