The International Criminal Court (ICC) was fully aware that its delegates could run into hostile situation in Zintan prior to the detention of its team led by Aussie lawyer Melinda Taylor last week.

Citing claims by Nick Kaufman, a lawyer handling the defence of Muammar Gaddafi's daughter, The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Friday that Ms Taylor was inadvertently caught in a tense environment due to the ongoing litigations surrounding the surviving Gaddafi scions.

Seif al-Islam and Aisha were battling legal cases being prosecuted by the new Libyan government and Mr Kaufman represents the latter while the ICC has appointed Ms Taylor to defend the former.

Mr Kaufman told The Herald that frictions started sparking between the Libyan authorities and the ICC when the latter accused the new government of manhandling the Gaddafi son, who was captured by Zintan-based brigades and has since remained in the custody of authorities in the city, which is located more than a hundred kilometres southwest of Tripoli.

Zintan's continued insistence to keep Seif under its authority reflects the fragile hold of the Libyan central government to armed units governing the provinces and cities outside of the North African nation's capital.

Such was one of the fears expressed earlier by Foreign Minister Bob Carr when Australian officials could not even get official confirmation from Tripoli on the whereabouts of Ms Taylor prior to Australian Ambassador David Ritchie's Tuesday night visit to her prison cell.

The disarray has been further complicated by the recent showdowns between Libyan authorities and the ICC, which led to numerous complaints put on record by top ICC officials operating in Libya.

"There is no doubt that these filings contributed to cementing the, shall we say, anger of the local authorities holding Seif, against Melinda and her superior," Mr Kaufman said.

His claims suggested too that the accusations against Ms Taylor were the offshoot of the resentments being felt by Zintan officials against the ICC.

The Libyans detained Ms Taylor for allegedly acting unethically by secretly passing information to Seif, which reportedly came from Mohammad Ismail, a former Gaddafi aide being hunted by Tripoli.

The Libyan government is also convinced that the Aussie lawyer has a definite clue on Mr Ismail is hiding, which Mr Kaufman highly doubts based on his previous dealings with Ms Taylor while working for the ICC.

"I worked with (Ms Taylor) for a number of years and she is incredibly talented and highly ethical," Ms Kaufman told The Herald.

The hostility cited by Mr Kaufman can be attributed on Libya's adamant stand to hold on to the detained ICC legal team for at least 45 more days, purportedly to subject them to further investigations.

Reporting Wednesday on Mr Ritchie's 90-minute visit to Ms Taylor in Zintan, Senator Carr said that the Aussie appeared well and in high spirits but lamented that an early release could not be secured in the coming days or weeks.

"The disturbing part of (Mr Ritchie's) report is that there's no evidence of a Libyan interest in an early release," the foreign minister said in a statement.

But strangely enough, a Libyan delegate to the ICC, Dr Ahmed El Jehani, a colleague of Ms Taylor, pinned the blame on the Aussie when he told ABC this week that "I tried to solve the problem but really Melinda, rejected and refused to co-operate."