'Gaddafi spent last days scavenging for food'

Former Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi scavenged for food and fled from one abandoned house to another during his desperate final days in his hometown of Sirte, one of his top security officials has revealed.

In an exclusive interview with the CNN, Mansour Dao, Gaddafi's security chief, has said that the Libyan dictator, who had enjoyed great riches and luxurious palaces during his reign, lived without electricity or television as the rebels advanced.

Speaking from a detention facility in Misrata, Dao said how Gaddafi survived on scraps of food he found in deserted houses and became engrossed in reading books he had stacked in his suitcases.

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Dao described Gaddafi's "unpredictable" behaviour as the fighters advanced on the city, and how he hatched a plan to fee to his birthplace, Jaref, a village 20 kilometres west of Sirte.

"He was very worried and erratic -- this could be because he was afraid. He wanted to go to his village, may be he wanted to die there or spend his last moments there," the Daily Mail quoted Dao as saying.

He also regretted being part of the regime, saying, "Sometimes I regret everything, I have even regretted being alive, of course a person has regrets at a time in his life and looks back but unfortunately you sometimes regret when it is too late."

Dao, who is known as the "black box" of the despot's regime for his intimate knowledge of some of Libya's darkest secrets, faces charges relating to his alleged role in hiring of African mercenaries during the downfall of the regime.

Dao, captured along with Gaddafi who was allegedly killed by the National Transitional Council fighters, denies the charge.