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Tripoli. Pressure mounted on Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi on Tuesday as the International Criminal Court prosecutor sought his arrest, NATO jets pounded his capital and his truce offer was snubbed.

Compounding the strongman’s woes, a security services building and the headquarters of Libya’s anticorruption agency were on fire in Tripoli early on Tuesday after apparently being hit by NATO air strikes.

Russia was meanwhile to hold talks on Tuesday with envoys of the Libyan leader before having a separate meeting with rebel representatives at a later date.

In The Hague, ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo applied on Monday for warrants for the arrest of Qaddafi, his son Seif al-Islam and intelligence head Abdullah Senussi for crimes against humanity.

The Argentine prosecutor said there was evidence that Qaddafi personally ordered attacks on innocent Libyan civilians.”

A panel of ICC judges will now decide whether to accept or reject the prosecutor’s application.

Moreno-Ocampo said thousands of people had been killed and around 750,000 people forced to flee since Qaddafi ordered his forces to crush protests against his four-decade autocratic rule that began on Feb. 15.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague called on the international community to “fully support” the ICC.

“I welcome this announcement. The human rights situation in western Libya and the behavior of the Qaddafi regime remains of grave concern,” Hague said.

The rebels too hailed the move by the ICC but said Qaddafi ought to be tried in Libya first.

The Libyan regime however claimed the ICC prosecutor was acting on what it called “incoherent” information.

“Unfortunately, the ICC was from the start of the Libyan crisis dependent on media reports to evaluate the situation in Libya. As a result, the ICC has usually reached incoherent conclusions,” government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said in a statement.

On the ground, two buildings on Al-Jumhuriya Avenue, close to Qaddafi’s residence were on fire early on Tuesday.

Government spokesman Ibrahim later said the rebel National Transitional Council had directed NATO to attack the anticorruption agency in a bid to destroy files related to former regime officials who have joined the rebellion.

“We believe that NATO has been misled to destroy files on their corruption cases,” he told journalists.

Three explosions had also been heard late on Monday in the same area.

Parts of Tripoli have been targeted almost daily by NATO-led strikes launched on March 19 after a UN resolution called for the protection of civilians from Qaddafi’s regime.

Russia abstained for the UN Security Council vote on international military intervention in a move that helped the measure to pass but has since argued that the current campaign breaches the UN mandate.

Although Moscow has refused to accept the rebels as a legitimate power in Libya and still has formal ties with the Qaddafi regime, it has agreed to meet them.

Qaddafi’s prime minister Baghdadi Mahmudi on Sunday offered a truce to UN special envoy, Abdul-Ilah al-Khatib, in return for a NATO cease-fire.

There has been no immediate response from NATO nor the NTC but previous truce offers by the regime have been rejected by the rebels, who say they won’t lay down their arms until Qaddafi’s regime stops attacking civilians.

Agence France-Presse