Former rebels who toppled the regime Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi will only withdraw from the capital Tripoli when a new army is formed, the head of a military council said on Sunday.

"Libya is now a police-less state," said Mokhtar Fernana who head the military council in western Libya.

"The thwars (revolutionaries) are the ones protecting Tripoli. It is thanks to them that there is security and stability," he said.

Last Wednesday, hundreds of residents of Tripoli backed by agitated policemen protested against the presence in Tripoli of these armed men who led the uprising against Kadhafi.

The protesters wanted the former rebels from outside Tripoli to leave the capital, citing increasing security concerns.

Pressure to disarm these armed men has mounted after local media reported several skirmishes between militia factions in Tripoli, with some resulting in casualties.

"When the national army is formed, the thwars will surrender their weapons," said Fernana, adding that he was part of a group tasked with setting up Libya's new army.

He also urged the country's new rulers, the National Transitional Council, to appoint as quickly as possible a chief-of-staff for the armed forces, saying it was key to the formation of a new army.

"If a chief of staff is not appointed there can be no national army," said Fernana.

Fernana also blamed a former rebel commander, Khalifa Haftar, for a gunfight that erupted near Tripoli national airport on Saturday.

According to Fernana the fighting erupted when a convoy in which Haftar was travelling refused to stop at a checkpoint manned by former rebels from the Zintan brigade on the airport road.

A Libyan army official and a former rebel told AFP that two people were wounded in Saturday's gunfight, but Fernana said that Haftar's men had killed two Zintan fighters and wounded two others.

The airport is currently under the control of the Zintan brigade, whose members are still holding toppled leader Moamer Kadhafi's son Seif al-Islam, having captured him last month.

Defence Minister Osama Juili was previously chief of the Zintan brigade.

The firefight came as Libya's ruling National Transitional Council held its first conference on national reconciliation in Tripoli on Saturday.