A Libyan court on Wednesday adjourned until August the murder and corruption trial of Moammar Gadhafi's last premier, who allegedly spent billions of dollars trying to buy support during the uprising that ousted the dictator.

Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, dressed in prison blues, appeared in the Tripoli court accused of "gratuitously killing people" and of "misappropriating public funds" during the 2011 revolt.

International media watchdog Reporters Without Borders called on the Libyan authorities on Tuesday to rein in allied militia it said were responsible for detaining journalists.

The Paris-based group said it was "extremely concerned" about the deteriorating security situation in Libya and the behavior of certain militias towards media personnel.

Italian diplomats in Tripoli escaped from their booby-trapped car before it exploded during a shopping trip in the Libyan capital on Tuesday, officials said.

"The Italian diplomats got out of their car in the district of Zawiet al-Dahmani to shop when they noticed a wire hanging beneath the vehicle," a diplomat said.

The Libyan army chief of staff, General Yusef al-Mangoush, resigned on Sunday after deadly unrest in Benghazi, members of the country's highest political authority the General National Congress said.

"The chief of staff presented his resignation that was accepted by the congress," GNC member Abdullah al-Gmati said, adding that the assembly had already been preparing a vote to suspend Mangoush.

NATO's chief is worried that the alliance lacks military readiness in crucial areas and is urging European members to do more, Germany's Spiegel news weekly reported Sunday, citing an internal document.

Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen pointed to 15 "problem areas", some of which had been clear since the 2011 Libya intervention, and said European partners in the transatlantic alliance had fallen short of their commitments, the report said.

Clashes in Libya's second city of Benghazi between former rebels and anti-militia demonstrators killed at least 31 people and wounded more than 100, the LANA news agency said on Sunday.

It cited a statement from Al-Jala hospital in the eastern city -- cradle of the revolution that toppled dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 -- as giving the new toll from Saturday's clashes, up from 28 dead.

A special envoy of Syrian President Bashar Assad met in Havana with Miguel Diaz-Canel, the number two man in government, Cuban state media said.

Diaz-Canel and the envoy, identified as Monhsen Bilal, exchanged thoughts about the Syrian conflict, according to a communique read late Wednesday on state TV news.

NATO is sending a team to Libya to look at the possibility of training its military, alliance head Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Tuesday, some two years after NATO helped rebels oust Moammar Gadhafi.

The team will be sent as soon as possible and return by the end of June when the next step will be determined, Rasmussen said.

NATO defense ministers will discuss the possibility of training Libya's military to ensure it is able to police the country's borders properly, a senior U.S. defense official said Monday.

The official, who asked not to be named, said the idea was at an early stage but NATO's 28 defense ministers meeting Tuesday and Wednesday at the alliance's headquarters near Brussels would look at the issue.

Libya said on Sunday it will appeal to the International Criminal Court to reverse its decision to prosecute Seif al-Islam, a son of slain dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

"We will obviously appeal" as required within five days of the announcement of the decision taken on Friday, Justice Minister Salah al-Marghani told a joint news conference with Prime Minister Ali Zeidan.