ALGIERS - Muammar Gadhafi became a grandfather again on Tuesday when his daughter Aisha gave birth to a girl within hours of fleeing across Libya's desert border into Algeria, officials said.

Algerian officials highlighted the plight of the expectant mother in explaining a decision to give refuge to the fugitive Libyan ex-leader's wife and three of her children on Monday - a move denounced by the country's new rulers as an act of aggression.

The child was born in Djanet, according to two Algerian official sources. An oasis deep in the Sahara, Djanet lies about 60 km (40 miles) from the Libyan frontier and 500 km southwest of Sabha, one of the last bastions of support for Aisha Gadhafi's 69-year-old father.

"Gadhafi's daughter gave birth to a girl today," a source close to the Algerian health ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters. "This is all I can say."

Aisha Gadhafi, a lawyer in her mid-30s about whom little information can be confirmed, was on the very point of giving birth when the family appealed to cross the border, another Algerian source said. That humanitarian consideration was the main reason for them being allowed in, the source added.

Algeria's ambassador to the United Nations, Mourad Benmehidi, told the BBC that in the desert regions there was a "holy rule of hospitality".

Analysts say the government in Algiers is wary of popular unrest in other Arab states and fears its own Islamist enemies may find support in the new Libya.

However, a local newspaper in Algiers reported that Algeria would hand over Muammar Gadhafi to the International Criminal Court (ICC) if he himself entered the country. Another paper said part of the Libyan border would be closed.

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