In two of them, the colonel's home town of Sirte, along the main coast road, and Bani Walid, 160km (100 miles) south-east of Tripoli, tribal elders seem keen to capitulate but plead for more time to persuade the colonel's diehard supporters to give up.
Mr Chavez has lately held talks with former Lieutenant-Colonel Francisco Arias, a man the president's own diehard followers regard as a traitor to his revolutionary cause.