TRIPOLI – Libya’s new leaders vowed on Thursday to bring the killers of Muammar Gaddafi to justice as NATO mulled a possible new role in the North African nation.

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“With regards to Gaddafi, we do not wait for anybody to tell us,” said Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, vice chairman of the ruling National Transitional Council at a news conference in Benghazi.

“We had already launched an investigation. We have issued a code of ethics in handling of prisoners of war. I am sure that was an individual act and not an act of revolutionaries or the national army,” Ghoga said.

“Whoever is responsible for that (Gaddafi’s killing) will be judged and given a fair trial.”

Until now, the NTC had adamantly claimed that Gaddafi was killed in crossfire after he was captured in Sirte, his hometown and final bastion.

The statement came as NATO weighed a possible new role in Libya following Gaddafi’s controversial death, as France said the UN would vote on Thursday to end the alliance’s mandate for an air war on October 31.

The NTC has pleaded for an extension to the alliance’s mandate, but French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said the request was unlikely to be granted.

Meanwhile, a UN envoy said international inspectors urgently need to visit hundreds of suspected weapons stockpiles in the North African country amid growing fears that huge numbers of shoulder-fired missiles have been looted.

Mustafa Abdel Jalil, head of the NTC, on Wednesday said Gaddafi loyalists in neighboring countries still posed a threat to his fledgling administration and urged NATO to continue its Libya campaign.

His fears were heightened by reports from security sources that Gaddafi’s former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, who fled Libya, had passed from Niger into Mali.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said discussions had started at NATO headquarters in Brussels and with Libya’s NTC about the end of the UN mandate.

She said the NTC “may foresee a future role for NATO,” and that discussions have been held about that as well.

“Some things have been discussed, like support for border security, support for demobilization, decommissioning of weapons, these kinds of things,” she said.

UN Security Council approval in March for a no-fly zone and military action to protect civilians has caused divisions on the body ever since. Russia, China, South Africa, Brazil and India have accused NATO of going beyond the mandate with the air strikes against Gathafi.