Libya's interim authorities said they will hand over power to a newly elected congress on Wednesday, less than a year after its fighters overthrew the regime of Moamer Kadhafi.

"We affirm that August 8, 2012 will be the day that power will be transferred peacefully," Saleh Darhoub, spokesman of the outgoing National Transitional Council, told journalists in Tripoli on Monday.

Libyans cast ballots on July 7 in the country's first free elections following a 2011 popular uprising that escalated into a civil war and overthrew the regime of now slain dictator Kadhafi.

They elected a 200-member legislative assembly comprising party and independent representatives, which will replace the NTC and lead the country until fresh elections can be held on the basis of a new constitution.

The transition comes against a backdrop of heightened insecurity in Tripoli, where a car exploded amid a market place gunbattle on Saturday, and in the eastern city of Benghazi.