PRETORIA, July 6: Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi has sent envoys to South African President Jacob Zuma to say that he will stay out of talks on a peace deal and on his own future, the foreign minister said on Wednesday.

“He said he does not want to stand in the way of a settlement, and so he will not be part of negotiations about the future of Libya or his own future,” foreign minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane told a news conference.

Zuma is part of an African Union team trying to broker a peace deal in Libya, and met Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev and Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Monday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.—AFP