* Libya's U.N. diplomats say they serving the people
* Statement urges army to turn against Gaddafi
* Security Council to hold closed-door meeting (Adds planned Security Council meeting, paragraph 3)
By Patrick Worsnip
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Diplomats at Libya's mission to the United Nations sided on Monday with the revolt against their country's leader and called on the Libyan army to help overthrow "the tyrant Muammar Gaddafi."
In a statement issued as protests erupted across Libya, the mission's deputy chief and other staff said they were serving the Libyan people, demanded "the removal of the regime immediately" and urged other Libyan embassies to follow suit.
Diplomats said the U.N. Security Council at the request of the Libyan deputy ambassador, Ibrahim Dabbashi, would hold a closed-door meeting on Tuesday at 9 a.m. (1400 GMT) to discuss the crisis.
Gaddafi was waging a bloody battle to hang on to power as the revolt against his 41-year rule reached the capital, Tripoli. The Libyan mission statement released in New York said hundreds had died in the first five days of the uprising.
The statement was issued by Dabbashi and other staff. Dabbashi told Reuters he did not know the whereabouts of Ambassador Abdurrahman Shalgham, a former Libyan foreign minister, but believed he was not in New York. Shalgham was not associated with the statement, Dabbashi said.
Spokesman Dia al-Hotmani said that at a meeting on Monday at the mission's New York offices, staff "expressed our sense of concern about the genocide going on in Libya."
"We are not seeing any reaction from the international community," he added.
"The tyrant Muammar Gaddafi has asserted clearly, through his sons the level of ignorance he and his children have, and how much he despises Libya and the Libyan people," the mission's Arabic language statement said.
It condemned Gaddafi's use of "African mercenaries" to try to put down the rebellion and said it expected "an unprecedented massacre in Tripoli."
Libya's ambassador to the United States told the BBC in Washington on Monday he was also withdrawing support for Gaddafi.
"I'm (not) resigning Muammar Gaddafi's government, but I am with the people," Ambassador Ali Adjali said. Citing the government crackdown, he added, "I am sorry to tell you that I'm not supporting this government anymore."
'CUT THE SNAKE'S HEAD'
The Libyan mission statement called on "the officers and soldiers of the Libyan army wherever they are and whatever their rank is ... to organize themselves and move towards Tripoli and cut the snake's head."
It appealed to the United Nations to impose a no-fly zone over Libyan cities to prevent mercenaries and weapons being shipped in.
It also urged guards at Libya's oil installations to protect them from any sabotage "by the coward tyrant," and urged countries to prevent Gaddafi from fleeing there and to be on the lookout for any money smuggling.
Asked if the Libyan government had reacted to the statement, Dabbashi told reporters, "I don't care that much about the reaction of the government, I think practically there is no government."
"I think it is a one-man show. It is a kind of end of the game, and he (Gaddafi) is trying to kill as much as he can from the Libyan people and try to destroy as much as he can from the Libyan country."
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon held an extensive telephone discussion with Gaddafi on Monday, condemned the escalating violence in Libya and told him it "must stop immediately," a U.N. spokesman said.
Dabbashi and his colleagues called on The Hague-based International Criminal Court to start an immediate inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity they said Gaddafi and his sons and followers had committed.
They called on employees of Libyan embassies all over the world to "stand with their people," especially the mission at the U.N. European headquarters in Geneva, which they said should seek action by the U.N. Human Rights Council there.
It was not immediately clear how many other Libyan embassies were likely to heed the call, although the country's ambassador in India said he was resigning in protest at the violent crackdown in his homeland.
Gaddafi visited the United Nations in September 2009, delivering a rambling address of more than 90 minutes to the annual General Assembly gathering of world leaders. (Additional reporting by Saif Eldin Hamdan in Cairo; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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