TUNIS - A Venezuelan plane has landed on the island of Djerba to evacuate members of Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi's family, Tunisian radio, Mosaique FM, reported on Friday. The news was announced by the radio's correspondent on the Tunisia- Libyan border.

The correspondent, quoting a rebel source in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi, said that Gadhafi's family members would soon leave Tunisia for the Venezuelan capital Caracas, adding that "it was the beginning of the end of Gadhafi's rule." It is not clear how they would be evacuated to Tunisia.

The source also said that it was highly likely that Gadhafi himself is no longer in the Libyan capital Tripoli, following overnight NATO strikes against his residential compound.