The International Criminal Court is in indirect talks with slain Libyan ruler's son Saif al-Islam Gadhafi but isn't negotiating terms of his possible surrender, ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said.

"There are no negotiations," Moreno-Ocampo told Al-Arabiya television in an interview conducted at the United Nations in New York.

"Someone close to Saif approached someone related with Saif and he was asking a few questions about the possible surrender of Saif to the ICC including questions about what happened if he is convicted, what happens if he is acquitted, where he is going, so we clarified this issue, but we have nothing to negotiate.

"We are prosecuting him. We have evidence. The judges issued an arrest warrant so our job is to try to ensure that he appears before the judges," Moreno-Ocampo said.

Saif and Libya's former intelligence chief under Gadhafi, Abdullah al-Senussi, are at large, their whereabouts still not in the public domain though possibly known to the unidentified people making contact with the ICC.

Both have been charged with crimes against humanity for the bombing and shooting of civilian protesters in February during Libya's mass anti-government uprising.

Moreno-Ocampo told Al-Arabiya: "We explained to him the law. The law is very clear; if he is convicted or if he is acquitted after that he can make a claim to the judges, explain that he cannot go back to his own country -- in this case Libya -- and he can request the judges to send him to a different place, as soon as the other state accepts him. So that is the legal system."

Asked how the ICC would react if Libya's transitional government issued an arrest warrant for Saif and asked for his surrender, Moreno-Ocampo said: "We cannot promise him, we cannot give any guarantees. He has to convince the judges that he will be mistreated or unfairly treated in Libya and then if he is acquitted or after the conviction he should be sent to a different place. We cannot guarantee him that ... but we explain to him the legal system."

Al-Arabiya cited reports that a German citizen was acting as an intermediary.

"We never met directly with the person coming from Saif, so in fact I don't know the identity of this person," Moreno-Ocamo said.

However, Moreno-Ocampo said, the ICC person talking indirectly to Saif's people was trusted by the court and he said he believes the contact from Saif was a genuine approach.

Moreno-Ocampo said if Saif did surrender then his transfer to the court could involve Interpol and the United Nations for neutral transport.

He said the court was gathering information in Libya but hadn't begun interviewing witnesses to war crimes.

"There are many committees (that) are doing investigations in different cities and we have a lot of very interesting information collected in a very impartial way, so we are delighted about how much we have worked together with the Libyan authorities. That's why for us the fact there is a new government is very important," he said.

Moreno-Ocampo said the court would investigate all allegations of human rights violations irrespective whether they implicated NATO forces, Gadhafi loyalists or others. But the court will await a decision by Libya's new rulers before responding to calls for an investigation into the death of Gadhafi on Oct. 20, he said.