(Adds AU panel statement)
JOHANNESBURG, April 10 (Reuters) - South African President Jacob Zuma and four African leaders planned to meet Libya's Muammar Gaddafi on Sunday and also see rebels seeking his ouster in an African Union effort to mediate in Libya's civil war.
Zuma was part of a five-man AU panel of presidents including Mali's Amadou Toumani Toure, Congo's Denis Sassou Nguessou, Uganda's Yoweri Museveni and Mauritania's Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, charged with finding a solution to the crisis.
"The Committee has been granted permission by NATO to enter Libya and to meet in Tripoli with ... Gaddafi. The AU delegation will also meet with the (rebel) Interim Transitional National Council in Benghazi on 10 and 11 April," a statement from the South African presidency said.
The national council based in rebel-held eastern Libya having been fighting for two months to unseat Gaddafi, who has been in power since a 1969 coup, and have won recognition from France, Italy and Qatar.
Before departure for Libya, the AU panel said in a statement from the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott that their objective was to stop the military operations and propose appropriate political solutions that might resolve the crisis.
"We hope that mediation will lead to a constructive dialogue for a political settlement of the crisis based on the aspirations of the Libyan people," said Mauritania's Aziz. (Reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa and Kissima Diagana in Nouakchott; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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