Veteran Libyan diplomat Ali Treiki has resigned from official duties, Arab League sources in Cairo said yesterday, the latest in a string of officials to abandon Moamer Kadhafi's regime.

Treiki, a former foreign minister and UN General Assembly president up until December 2010, held talks yesterday in Cairo with Arab League chief Amr Mussa but refused to make any press statements.

He has resigned his official duties as an adviser to Kadhafi but did not pledge allegiance to the rebels fighting to overthrow the Libyan regime, a league source said.

Treiki was ambassador to the United Nations until 2009 when he became president of the UN General Assembly. He also served as Libya's ambassador to France, minister of African affairs, and foreign minister in the 1970s and again in the 1980s.

He is the second high profile official to resign this week, after the defection of foreign minister and Kadhafi regime stalwart Mussa Kussa.

Kussa arrived in Britain from Tunisia on Wednesday, dealing a major blow to the Libyan regime as it faced a Western-led aerial assault backed by a UN Security Council resolution authorising the protection of civilians by all means.