Libya's defected ex-prime minister Abdessalam Jalloud said today he believed it was too late for his former ally Muammar Gaddafi to strike a deal to leave power and he would likely be killed.

"I believe the regime has a week left, 10 days at most. And maybe even less," Jalloud said in an interview with Italian news programme TG3 after fleeing Tripoli and escaping first to Tunisia and then Italy in recent days.

"He has no way of leaving Tripoli. All the roads are blocked. He can only leave with an international agreement and I think that door is closed," said Jalloud, a former regime stalwart who helped Gaddafi win power in a 1969 coup.

"I think it would be difficult for Gaddafi to give himself up. And he is not like Hitler who had the courage to kill himself... I don't think the evolution of the situation in Tripoli will allow him to survive," he added.

Italian Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa earlier confirmed reports about Jalloud's presence in Italy. "Gaddafi's former number two is indeed in Italy," La Russa told reporters.

Jalloud was Gaddafi 's right-hand man in the 1970s and 1980s but had been increasingly distanced from politics starting in the 1990s following a reported fallout with his childhood friend.

In a video statement aired earlier today on Al-Jazeera news channel, Jalloud urged Gaddafi's tribe to disown the embattled "tyrant" and called on the population of Tripoli to rise up in rebellion.

"Disown this tyrant because he will go and you will end up inheriting his legacy," he said.

"The people of Tripoli, who account for a quarter of Libya's inhabitants, should rise massively. It is time to act... overcome fear," he added.

Libya's state-run JANA news agency downplayed Jalloud's escape, saying he had remained out of politics for some time.