CAIRO - In an audio tape broadcast on a Syrian TV channel, Saif al-Islam, the second son of toppled Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi, Wednesday urged Gadhafi's loyalists to continue resistance against the rebels.

In the tape broadcast on the Damascus-based Al-Rai television, he said he was staying in a suburb of Tripoli and the resistance would continue.

Saif also vowed to soon "liberate" the Green Square in Tripoli from the rebels' control.

He claimed that there are more than 20,000 armed youths in Sirte, Gadhafi's hometown, and one of the few towns still in the hands of the former Libyan leader's forces.

Saif added that his father is doing well, without giving clues about where he currently is.

In a conflicting sign from Gadhafi's camp, the former leader's third son, Saadi, said Wednesday that he had talked with a member of the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) in Tripoli by phone on ending the bloodshed in Libya, al-Arabiya TV reported.

Saadi said that he was authorized by his father to contact the rebels, and that Gadhafi's government "acknowledges" that the NTC represents "a legal party."

But voices from the rebels seem to indicate that Saadi could be a window for penetration, as they were reportedly saying Wednesday that Saadi's life would be safe should he surrender. Yet, latest information showed Saadi was still reluctant to give himself away.

In a related development, Libyan rebels said Gadhafi's foreign minister Abdelati Obeidi, who replaced defected Mussa Kussa about two months into the Libyan turmoil, had been arrested at his farm in Janzour, a suburb west of Tripoli, al-Jazeera television reported Wednesday.

Rebel military spokesman Col. Ahmed Bani said last Sunday at a news conference that Gadhafi's youngest son Khamis might have been shot a day before in his car, among a convoy of Mercedes, by rebel troops some 80 km southeast to Tripoli, but Bani added he could not confirm the death.

Gadhafi's wife Safia, his daughter Aisha, his sons Hannibal and Mohammed, accompanied by their children, entered Algeria at 08:45 a.m. local time (0745 GMT) through the Algerian-Libyan border, the Algerian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday.