Libyan Oil minister Shukri Ghanem has left the country, amid reports that he has defected. 

Tunisian officials say Ghanem - a former prime minister - crossed into Tunisia by road en-route to the island of Djerba on Tuesday.

A spokesman for the Libyan rebels told the BBC that the minister had defected, and was on his way to a European country.

The BBC’s correspondent said if the minister’s defection was confirmed, he would be the highest-level figure to go since the country’s Foreign minister Moussa Koussa fled to the UK in March.

“Shukri Ghanem has left Libya,” a Tunisian official told AFP news agency. The official added that Mr Ghanem had gone to a hotel in Djerba but “not tried to contact the Tunisian authorities”.

A UK-based spokesman for the rebel Transitional National Council, Jumaa el Gamaty, told the BBC: “Mr Shukri Ghanem has defected. I think as we speak he’s in [a] transitory European country.”

The Libyan government said Ghanem had been on official business in Tunisia, but Tripoli had lost touch with him. 

Government spokesperson Moussa Ibrahim told the New York Times newspaper that the government’s fight against rebels “doesn’t depend on individuals, even if they are high-ranking officials”.

Ghanem is also the head of Libya’s National Oil Corporation. The incident comes a day after the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced he was seeking the arrest of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and two other senior figures on war crimes charges.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo said the Libyan leader, his son Saif al-Islam, and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanussi bore the greatest responsibility for “widespread and systematic attacks” on civilians.

However, ICC judges must still decide whether or not to issue warrants for their arrest.

By Staff reporter and agencies

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