"The decision to do justice in Libya should be taken by the Libyan people,” International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Wednesday, referring to recent violence in the North African country.

As Libya is not a State Party to the ICC, the court can only intervene if the Libyan authorities accept its jurisdiction, or if the UN Security Council decides to refer the case to the Court.

“The Office of the Prosecutor will act only after either decision is taken," said Moreno-Ocampo.

The ICC would first have to open an investigation to see if the political violence in Libya can be considered as a crime against humanity.

However, since Libya is not signatory to the Rome Statute establishing the ICC, the best chance for the investigation to begin is if the UN Security Council asks the ICC to take on the case. This has happened only once in the past, when the Security Council referred the situation of atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region to the ICC, after which the court issued two warrants for the Sudanese president Omar Al Bashir.

UN reactions
The UN Security Council late Tuesday condemned "the violence and use of force against civilians (in Libya), deplored the repression against peaceful demonstrators and expressed deep regret at the deaths of hundreds of civilians."

UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for global efforts to ensure a "prompt and peaceful transition" as he cut short a trip over the crisis and returned to New York on Wednesday.

Following up on the Security Council meeting, the UN Human Rights Council said it would hold a special session on Friday to discuss the crisis.

UN rights experts have accused Libya of "engaging in a massacre of its own people" and the High Commissioner for Human Rights warned that widespread and systematic attacks against civilians "may amount to crimes against humanity."

The Security Council had met as Kadhafi rallied supporters of his four-decade rule, calling on them in an angry and rambling speech on Tuesday evening to "capture the rats" and promising to flush them out "house by house" and "inch by inch."

640 dead: rights groups
The Libyan interior ministry released the first official death toll since the unrest broke out a week ago, saying the disturbances had claimed 300 lives - 189 civilians and 111 soldiers.

Rights groups, however, put the death toll at 640 - at least.