A former colonel in Moamer Kadhafi's military has been appointed as the new chief of staff of the Libyan army, two members of the country's ruling National Transitional Council told AFP on Tuesday.

Yussef al-Mangush, who took voluntary retirement from Kadhafi's military and even participated in the rebellion against the former leader, was promoted to the rank of general and appointed as chief of staff, said NTC member Abdelrazzak al-Aradi.

His appointment was confirmed by Fathi Baaja, another member of the NTC from the eastern city of Benghazi, the cradle of the uprising that toppled Kadhafi.

The post has been vacant since the murder in July of General Abdel Fatah Yunis, who commanded the former rebels in eastern Libya against Kadhafi's diehards.

Mangush is currently a deputy defence minister in the interim government of Prime Minister Abdel Rahim al-Kib.

"His appointment as the head of the army has been backed by NTC chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil and Prime Minister Kib," said Baaja.

During the conflict, Mangush was arrested in the oil town of Brega in April by Kadhafi's forces and freed in late August following the fall of Tripoli.

Several officers of the former army had criticised the NTC for moving slowly on the appointment of the new chief of staff, saying the delay had also held back the formation of a new army and the integration of former rebels who fought Kadhafi.

Formation of a new army is seen as a key step toward disarm militias in the country, especially in Tripoli.

In November about 150 officers from the former military gathered in the town of Baida to appoint Major General Khalifa Haftar as the new chief of staff in an attempt to pressure the NTC, but his appointment was never made official.

Tunisian policeman freed by Libyan 'revolutionaries': report
Tunis (AFP) Jan 1, 2012 - A Tunisian policeman kidnapped by self-proclaimed Libyan revolutionaries on the border was freed Sunday, a day after being taken hostage by about 10 armed men, the TAP news agency reported.

Walid Othmani and three others were seized on the border while patrolling the frontier region of Benguerdane, TAP said.

It quoted interior ministry spokesman Hichem Medeb as saying that the kidnappers described themselves as "Libyan revolutionaries". He said the three other police offiders managed to flee.

Othami's father Mokhtar said he was injured by bullets and added that the abductors wanted "to hold him hostage in a swap for an unknown party".

The kidnapping, the first of its kind, came two days before a visit to Tripoli by Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki.

The Tunisian-Libyan border post of Ras Jdir reopened in both directions on December 22 after Tunisian customs officials stopped reporting for duty at the post since November 30, following a string of incidents and infiltrations of armed Libyans.

The Libyan side of the crossing, vital to the area's economy, had been controlled by former rebels who fought to topple Moamer Kadhafi but was not formally under the central government's authority.

Tunisia provided refuge to tens of thousands of Libyan civilians who fled the months of fighting that led to the collapse of Kadhafi's regime with his death in October.