Libyan official Gadhafi 'should step down in the interest of Libya'.

Tripoli, Libya - As relentless unrest entered a 14th day Monday, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi remained defiant and gave no indication of stepping down -- even though a Libyan official said doing so would be in the interest of the country.

Abdullah Alzubedi, the Libyan ambassador to South Africa, told journalists Monday that Gadhafi "should take the ultimate decision to step down in the interest of Libya."

Speaking in Pretoria, South Africa, Alzubedi said he will not leave his position despite resignations by other Libyan officials because he must continue to "serve the needs of Libyans living in South Africa and help South Africa evacuate its citizens." But Alzubedi said he would not continue working for Gadhafi if the longtime ruler ultimately crushes the people's rebellion.

The recent protests -- which began February 15 -- have been fueled by protesters demanding freedom and decrying high unemployment. Crowds have chanted for an end to Gadhafi's nearly 42-year regime.
Gadhafi control wanes outside Tripoli
Libya: Stranded in Benghazi
Gadhafi's history of tension with the West
Wolfowitz on Bush and Libya

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denounced violence by Libya's military on its people.

"The use of military force against the civilian population, as it happened in Libya where hundreds of civilians were killed, is unacceptable," Lavrov said Monday at a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.

Gadhafi seemed increasingly cornered as security forces defected to the opposition in a town near the capital and the United Nations Security Council voted for tough restrictions and possible war crimes charges against the Libyan regime.

On Sunday, Gadhafi criticized the Security Council resolution, passed over the weekend, telling private Serbian station Pink TV by phone that council members "took a decision based on media reports that are based abroad." He added, "If the Security Council wants to know about something, they should have sent a fact-finding committee."

The Security Council measures -- which include an arms embargo, asset freeze and travel bans for Gadhafi and members of his family and associates -- also refer the situation unfolding in Libya to the International Criminal Court.

Security forces said they had switched sides and joined the opposition in Zawiya, a town about 55 kilometers (35 miles) west of the capital, Tripoli, on Sunday.

About 2,000 people took part in an anti-government protest there, some standing atop tanks or holding antiaircraft guns. They said they wanted the government overthrown, calling Gadhafi a "bloodsucker."

The opposition now controls several Libyan cities after weeks of protests inspired by demonstrations that toppled longtime leaders in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt.

The death toll from the recent unrest has topped 1,000, according to an estimate from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Security Council measures form "one of the speediest international responses to a government targeting its own people."

"We recognize the killings are ongoing," Clinton told reporters en route to a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Switzerland. "We recognize we need to advance the humanitarian, the military, judicial, and even forensic planning already under way."

And Britain announced it was freezing the assets of Gadhafi, five of his children, and those acting on their behalf.

"Show me a single attack," he said. "Show me a single bomb. Show me a single casualty. The Libyan air force destroyed just the ammunition sites."

Protesters hit by hail of gunfire in Libya march.

BENGHAZI, Libya – Protesters demanding Moammar Gadhafi's ouster came under a hail of bullets Friday when pro-regime militiamen opened fire to stop the first significant anti-government marches in days in the Libyan capital. The Libyan leader, speaking from the ramparts of a historic Tripoli fort, told supporters to prepare to defend the nation.

Witnesses reported multiple deaths from gunmen on rooftops and in the streets shooting at crowds with automatic weapons and even an anti-aircraft gun.

"It was really like we are dogs," one man who was marching from Tripoli's eastern Tajoura district told The Associated Press. He added that many people were shot in the head, with seven people within 10 yards (meters) of him cut down in the first wave.

Also Friday evening, troops loyal to Gadhafi attacked a major air base east of Tripoli that had fallen into rebel hands.

A force of tanks attacked the Misrata Air Base, succeeding in retaking part of it in battles with residents and army units who had joined the anti-Gadhafi uprising, said a doctor and one resident wounded in the battle on the edge of opposition-held Misrata, Libya's third-largest city, about 120 miles (200 kilometers) from the capital.

The opposition captured two fighters, including a senior officer, and still held part of the large base, they said. Shooting could still be heard from the area after midnight. The doctor said 22 people were killed in two days of fighting at the air base and an adjacent civilian airport.

In Washington, President Barack Obama signed an executive order Friday freezing assets held by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and four of his children in the United States. The Treasury Department said the sanctions against Gadhafi, three of his sons and a daughter also apply to the Libyan government.

Obama said the U.S. is imposing unilateral sanctions on Libya because continued violence there poses an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to America's national security and foreign policy.

A White House spokesman said it is clear that Gadhafi's legitimacy has been "reduced to zero" — the Obama administration's sharpest words yet. The U.S. also temporarily abandoned its embassy in Tripoli as a final flight carrying American citizens departed from the capital.

The U.N. Security Council met to consider possible sanctions against Gadhafi's regime, including trade sanctions and an arms embargo. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged it take "concrete action" to protect civilians in Libya, saying "the violence must stop" and those responsible for "so brutally shedding blood" must be punished.

But Gadhafi vowed to fight on. In the evening, he appeared before a crowd of more than 1,000 supporters in Green Square and called on them to fight back and "defend the nation."

"Retaliate against them, retaliate against them," Gadhafi said, speaking by microphone from the ramparts of the Red Castle, a Crusader fort overlooking the square. Wearing a fur cap, he shook his fist, telling the crowd: "Dance, sing and prepare. Prepare to defend Libya, to defend the oil, dignity and independence."

He warned, "At the suitable time, we will open the arms depot so all Libyans and tribes become armed, so that Libya becomes red with fire."

The crowd waved pictures of the leader and green flags as he said, "I am in the middle of the people in the Green Square. ... This is the people that loves Moammar Gadhafi. If the people of Libya and the Arabs and Africans don't love Moammar Gadhafi then Moammar Gadhafi does not deserve to live."

Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, told foreign journalists invited by the government to Tripoli that there were no casualties in Tripoli and that the capital was "calm ... Everything is peaceful. Peace is coming back to our country."

He said the regime wants negotiations with the opposition and said there were "two minor problems" in Misrata and Zawiya, another city near the capital held by the opposition.

There, he said, "we are dealing with terrorist people." But he said he hoped to reach a peaceful settlement with them "and I think by tomorrow we will solve it."

Earlier Seif was asked in an interview with CNN-Turk about the options in the face of the unrest. "Plan A is to live and die in Libya, Plan B is to live and die in Libya, Plan C is to live and die in Libya," he replied.

The marches in the capital were the first major attempt by protesters to break a clampdown that pro-Gadhafi militiamen have imposed on Tripoli since the beginning of the week, when dozens were killed by gunmen roaming the street, shooting people on sight.

In the morning and night before, text messages were sent around urging protesters to stream out of mosques after noon prayers, saying, "Let us make this Friday the Friday of liberation," residents said. The residents and witnesses all spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

In response, militiamen set up heavy security around many mosques in the city, trying to prevent any opposition gatherings. Armed young men with green armbands to show their support for Gadhafi set up checkpoints on many streets, stopping cars and searching them. Tanks and checkpoints lined the road to Tripoli's airport, witnesses said.

After prayers, protesters flowed out of mosques, converging into marches from several neighborhoods, heading toward Green Square. But they were hit almost immediately by militiamen, a mix of Libyans and foreign mercenaries.

"We can't see where it is coming from," another protester from Tajoura district — several miles (kilometers) from Green Square — said of the gunfire. "They don't want to stop." He said a man next to him was shot in the neck.

In the nearby Souq al-Jomaa district, witnesses reported four killed as gunmen fired from rooftops. "There are all kind of bullets," said one man in the crowd, screaming in a telephone call to the AP, with the rattle of gunfire audible in the background. Another protester was reported killed in the Fashloum district. The reports could not be independently confirmed.

After nightfall, protesters dispersed, and regime supporters prowled the streets, a resident said. As they have on past nights this week, many blockaded streets into their neighborhoods to prevent militiamen and strangers from entering.

Tripoli, home to about a third of Libya's population of 6 million, is the center of the eroding territory that Gadhafi still controls. The opposition holds a long sweep of about half of Libya's 1,000-mile (1,600- kilometer) Mediterranean coastline where most of the population lives.

Even in the Gadhafi-held pocket of northwestern Libya around Tripoli, several cities have also fallen to the rebellion. Militiamen and pro-Gadhafi troops were repelled Thursday when they launched attacks trying to take back opposition-held territory in Zawiya and Misrata in fighting that killed at least 30 people.

In an apparent bid to win public favor, parliament speaker Mohammed Abul-Qassim al-Zwai announced that the government would increase salaries and offer the unemployed a monthly salary. State TV reported the unemployed would get the equivalent of $117 a month and salaries would be raised 50 to 150 percent.

Support for Gadhafi continued to fray within a regime where he long commanded unquestioned loyalty.

Libya's delegation to the United Nations in Geneva announced Friday it was defecting to the opposition — and it was given a standing ovation at a gathering of the U.N. Human Rights Council. They join a string of Libyan ambassadors and diplomats around the world who abandoned the regime, as have the justice and interior ministers at home, and one of Gadhafi's cousins and closest aides, Ahmed Gadhaf al-Dam, who sought refuge in Egypt.

Libya's 11-member Arab League mission also announced its resignation in protest at the crackdown

On a visit to Turkey, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the violence by pro-Gadhafi forces is unacceptable and should not go unpunished.

"Mr. Gadhafi must go," he said.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch has put the death toll in Libya at nearly 300, according to a partial count from several days ago. Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said estimates of some 1,000 people killed were "credible."

The upheaval in the OPEC nation has taken most of Libya's oil production of 1.6 million barrels a day off the market. Oil prices hovered above $98 a barrel Friday in Asia, backing away from a spike to $103 the day before amid signs the crisis in Libya may have cut crude supplies less than previously estimated.

The opposition camp says it is in control of two of Libya's major oil ports — Breqa and Ras Lanouf — on the Gulf of Sidra. A resident of Ras Lanouf said Friday that the security force guarding that port had joined the rebellion and were helping guard it, along with residents of the area.

Several tens of thousands held a rally in support of the Tripoli protesters in the main square of Libya's second-largest city, Benghazi, where the revolt began, about 580 miles (940 kilometers) east of the capital along the Mediterranean coast.

Tents were set up and residents served breakfast to people, many carrying signs in Arabic and Italian. Others climbed on a few tanks parked nearby, belonging to army units in the city that allied with the rebellion.

"We will not stop this rally until Tripoli is the capital again," said Omar Moussa, a demonstrator. "Libyans are all united. ... Tripoli is our capital. Tripoli is in our hearts."

Muslim cleric Sameh Jaber led prayers in the square, telling worshippers that Libyans "have revolted against injustice."

"God take revenge from Moammar Gadhafi because of what he did to the Libyan people," the cleric, wearing traditional Libyan white uniform and a red cap, said in remarks carried by Al-Jazeera TV. "God accept our martyrs and make their mothers, fathers and families patient."

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said the bloc needs to consider sanctions such as travel restrictions and an asset freeze against Libya to halt to the violence and move toward democracy.

NATO's main decision-making body met in emergency session to consider the deteriorating situation. It said it would continue to monitor the crisis, but that it will not intervene. Participants at the NATO meeting decided it would be premature to discuss deployments or a no-fly zone over Libya, said a diplomat familiar with the discussions.

The U.N.'s top human rights official, Navi Pillay said reports of mass killings in Libya should spur the international community to "step in vigorously" to end the crackdown against anti-government protesters.

Reports of torture, killing in Libya, says U.N. secretary general.

Benghazi, Libya- As clashes in the Libyan capital continued Friday between government security forces and anti-regime protesters, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters unequivocally: "The violence must stop."

His remarks came as state television was airing images of the embattled but defiant strongman urging viewers to defend the nation.

A man CNN will identify only as Reda to protect his identity said in a telephone interview that armed men dressed in plainclothes fatally shot his two brothers Friday as they were demonstrating against the government. Also killed were his two neighbors, he said.

More than 1,000 people have been killed, according to estimates cited Friday by Ban. He noted that the eastern part of the country "is reported to be under the control of opposition elements, who have taken over arms and ammunition from weapon depots."

At least three cities near Tripoli have been the site of daily clashes, and the streets of the capital are largely deserted because people are afraid of being shot by government forces or militias, he said.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's supporters "are reportedly conducting house-by-house searches and arrests. According to some reports, they have even gone into hospitals to kill wounded opponents," Ban said.

Accounts from the news media and human rights groups and witnesses "raise grave concerns about the nature and scale of the conflict," he said. He said they include reports of indiscriminate killings, shooting of peaceful demonstrators, torture of the opposition and use of foreign mercenaries.

The victims have included women and children and "indiscriminate attacks on foreigners believed to be mercenaries," he said, referring to reports.

Ban called on the international community "to do everything possible" to protect civilians at demonstrable risk.

Ban said there appeared to be a growing crisis of refugees, with some 22,000 people having fled to Tunisia and a reported 15,000 to Egypt in the past few days. For many, the trip has been a harrowing one.

"There are widespread reports of refugees being harassed and threatened with guns and knives," Ban said.

"The violence must stop," he said. "Those responsible for so brutally shedding the blood of innocents must be punished. Fundamental human rights must be respected."

Also at the United Nations, Libyan Ambassador Abdurrahman Mohamed Shalgham told reporters that he hoped Gadhafi and his sons would end the rampage "against our people" within hours.

Asked why he had continued to support Gadhafi until just a few days ago, the diplomat said, "I couldn't imagine in the beginning that it was going to be (this bad)."

But he now supports the protesters. "It's not a crime to say, 'I want to be free,' " he said.

The Libyan ambassador to the United States, Ali Suleiman Aujali, told CNN that he too has joined the opposition.

"When I see the mercenaries killing our peoples, and we see our women screaming in the street, and I see there is no distinguishing between who they are target, I can't take this," said the diplomat, who served the Libyan government's foreign service for more than 40 years.

He said his fellow diplomats and many of the country's police had also turned against Gadhafi in his quest to retain control of Libya. "The problem now is western part," he said, speaking in Washington.

"Unfortunately, they've been confronted with mercenaries."

Asked whether he would want to see his former boss dead, he said, "I want him to be out of my country. I want him to be out of the Libyan life."

As he spoke, reports emerged of sniper and artillery fire in Tripoli, said Mohammed Ali Abdallah of the National Front for the Salvation of Libya, which opposes Gadhafi's regime. He based his account on reports that he said he received from witnesses.

Another witness told CNN that protesters in western Tripoli were met by plainclothes security forces who fired guns at them and later tear gas to disperse the crowds.

Prior to the clashes on Friday morning, security forces had removed barricades, disposed of bodies and painted over graffiti in Tripoli, witnesses said.

On state television, Gadhafi -- wearing a fur trooper's hat and addressing a crowd of supporters -- threatened to escalate the violence. "We can destroy any assault with the people's will, with the armed people," he said. "And when it is necessary, the weapons depots will be open to all the Libyan people to be armed."

At that time, he continued, "Libya will become a red fire, Libya will become an ember."

He vowed to overcome what he described as external forces attempting to take down his nation.

"We will defeat any foreign attempt like we defeated them before, like we did with the Italian colonization, like we did with American airstrikes."

But he presented a carrot with his stick, offering to increase state salaries by 150% and to give $400 to each family.

Earlier, Gadhafi's son said his father has no intention of stepping down.

Asked if Gadhafi has a "Plan B" to leave Libya, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi told CNN Turk: "We have Plan A, Plan B, Plan C. Plan A is to live and die in Libya. Plan B is to live and die in Libya. Plan C is to live and die in Libya."

He said he hoped Libya would emerge from the crisis united.

"I am sure Libya will have a better future," he said. "However, such a strong state as we are, we will never allow our people to be controlled by a handful of terrorists. This will never happen." But global leaders were meeting Friday to talk about what kind of pressure can be brought on Gadhafi to surrender control and limit the humanitarian consequences.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said Washington was suspending embassy operations in Tripoli and pursuing sanctions. "It has been shuttered," he told reporters about the embassy. But State Department officials said they still have channels through which they can still communicate with the Libyan government.

Libyan employees were remaining at the embassy, said Under Secretary ofState for Management Patrick Kennedy. "The flag is still flying. The embassy is not closed. Operations are suspended," he said. "Relations are not broken."

The charge d'affaires at the embassy, Joan Polaschik, expressed relief that she and other Americans had left. "It's a very dangerous and fluid situation," she told CNN in a telephone interview from Istanbul, Turkey.

But she praised the Libyan forces who were charged with providing security for the embassy. "They stayed with me till the bitter end," she said.

The United Nations Security Council discussed a proposed draft resolution that would impose new sanctions on Libya. They include an arms embargo, asset freeze and a travel ban. The draft also refers Libya to the International Criminal Court.

An Obama administration official involved in deliberations regarding sanctions told CNN that the Libyan government has said it has as much as $130 billion in reserves and another $70 billion in foreign assets held abroad.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Rasmussen said the alliance has assets that can be used in this crisis and that it could "act as an enabler and coordinator, if and when, individual member states want to take action."

Meanwhile, foreign nationals faced a "massive challenge," Rasmussen said, as they braved rough seas to escape the violence in the north African nation. A British ship left Benghazi -- the nation's second-largest city -- with 207 people on board. A ferry carrying 338 people -- 183 of them Americans -- departed Tripoli Friday and arrived in Malta at night.

"I feel for the people who are still there and didn't get a chance to get out, because it's chaos," said Yusra Tekbalim, one of the passengers. She said she had remained hunkered down in her house for four days, during which she heard what sounded like machine-gun fire.

"I think that the Libyans know what this regime is capable of, but I think for the first time the world is actually seeing it," she said.

Another ferry arrived in Malta from Tripoli carrying more than 300 people, including 200 employees of Schlumberger, the oil and gas technology, and their families, a company spokeswoman said.

Libya's uprising, after four decades of Gadhafi's iron rule, took root first in the nation's eastern province. Benghazi and other smaller eastern towns are no longer within Gadhafi's control.

But closer to Tripoli, where the dictator maintains some support, protesters were still being met with brute force.

The city of Zawiya -- about 55 kilometers (35 miles) west of Tripoli -- was the epicenter of violent protests Thursday. Doctors at a field hospital said early Friday that 17 people were killed and 150 more wounded when government forces attacked.

Anti-government forces said they had gained control of Zawiya as Gadhafi accused followers of Osama bin Laden of adding hallucinogenic drugs to residents' drinks to spark the unrest.

"They put it with milk or with other drinks, spiked drinks," he said Thursday in a telephone call to state television.

The international fallout, like the protests, has also spread. Switzerland ordered Gadhafi's assets frozen, the foreign ministry said.

Libya on edge as Kadhafi forces fight back in west.

BENGHAZI: Libya was on edge Friday as forces loyal to Moamer Kadhafi's crumbling regime staged a bloody fight back in western towns near Tripoli, as the east declared itself free of his iron-fisted rule.

Outraged Western governments scrambled to craft a collective response to the crisis in the oil-rich North African state, including possible sanctions against Kadhafi's remaining loyalists and a freeze on assets they are believed to have salted away abroad.

But governments were constrained by fears of reprisals against nationals still stranded amid what escaping expatriates described as hellish scenes as evacuation efforts dragged on the 11th day of the crisis.

In Az-Zawiyah, west of Tripoli, 23 people were killed and 44 wounded on Thursday when regime loyalists mounted a ferocious rearguard action against protesters in the key oil refinery town, Libya's Quryna paper reported.

"The wounded cannot reach the hospitals because of shots being fired in all directions," said the paper, based in now the opposition-held eastern city of Benghazi quoting its correspondent in Az-Zawiyah.

Heavy fighting was also reported in Libya's third city Misrata, to the west of capital.

In Zouara, further west towards the Tunisian border, fleeing Egyptian workers said the town was in the control of civilian militias after fierce fighting on Wednesday evening.

Addressing his divided nation on Thursday for the second time in three days, Kadhafi, 68, accused residents of the town of siding with Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. "You in Zawiyah turn to Bin Laden," he said. "They give you drugs.

"It is obvious now that this issue is run by Al-Qaeda," he said, addressing the town's elders. "Those armed youngsters, our children, are incited by people who are wanted by America and the Western world.

"They have guns, they feel trigger happy and they shoot especially when they are stoned with drugs."

In marked contrast to a 75-minute address from a podium outside his Tripoli home on Tuesday, Kadhafi spoke by telephone from an undisclosed location in an intervention that lasted barely 20 minutes.

His decision to speak by telephone rather than make an on-screen appearance has raised questions about his whereabouts, and indicates that his power base may be shrinking.

In Tripoli, the streets have been largely deserted in recent days but worshippers were expected to turn out at the mosques for the main weekly prayers on Friday.

Libya's second city of Benghazi, where the unprecedented protests against Kadhafi's four decade rule first erupted, was firmly in the hands of Kadhafi's opponents.

Effigies apparently of Kadhafi hung from street lamps in the eastern city and children played on top of an abandoned tank. Police stations had been gutted by fire but residents said there had been no looting.

In the courthouse outside which the demonstrations started, regime opponents set up a revolutionary headquarters to take over the administration of the city as civilian militiamen and mutinous regular army troops patrolled the streets.

Some soldiers were selling their weapons to the highest bidder even as their defecting commanders strove to forge their men into an organised anti-Kadhafi force.

Fighting in Tripoli shakes Qadhafi.

TRIPOLI: Protesters overran several Libyan cities on Monday and regime stalwarts started defecting as the pillars of Muammar Qadhafi’s four-decade dictatorial rule began to crumble.

A suggestion in Brussels by British Foreign Secretary William Hague that Qadhafi may have left the country for Venezuela was swiftly denied by Caracas.

Two Libyan fighter pilots — both colonels — flew their Mirage F1 jets to Malta and said they had defected after being ordered to attack protesters in Benghazi, Maltese military and official sources told AFP. Malta is the closest European state to Libya, just 340 kilometres north of its coastline.

Italy put all military air bases on maximum alert after the fighters landed, ANSA news agency reported.

Libyan diplomats at the United Nations joined calls for Qadhafi to quit, US media reported, with deputy ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi telling CNN Qadhafi has “declared war” on the Libyan people and is committing “genocide”.

Benghazi, Libya’s second city and an opposition stronghold in the east, fell to anti-regime demonstrators after military units deserted, the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (IFHR) reported earlier.

Gunfire also rattled in the capital Tripoli on Monday, where protesters attacked police stations and the offices of the state broadcaster, Qadhafi’s mouthpiece, and set government buildings ablaze.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon told Qadhafi in a phone call that the violence “must stop immediately” and called for a broad-based dialogue, a UN spokesman said.

Mr Hague said Qadhafi may be en route to Venezuela, citing “information that suggests he is on his way,” but a Venezuelan official who asked not to be identified retorted: “It’s not true.”

US President Barack Obama was “considering all appropriate actions” as Washington ordered all non-essential staff out of Libya and warned Americans to avoid travel to the north African country.

Libyan state television said security forces were battling “dens of terrorists” in a sweep that has killed a number of people, without specifying where or who was being targeted.

State television reported that Qadhafi’s son, Seif al-Islam, had set up a commission to probe “the sad events”, and that it would include “members of Libyan and foreign rights organisations”. He had already appeared on television overnight to warn of looming civil conflict.

“Libya is at a crossroads. If we do not agree today on reforms… rivers of blood will run through Libya,” he said in a bellicose but rambling speech that also betrayed a hint of desperation.

“We will take up arms… we will fight to the last bullet. We will destroy seditious elements. If everybody is armed, it is civil war, we will kill each other… Libya is not Egypt, it is not Tunisia.”

Qadhafi defiant in face of mounting revolt.

TRIPOLI: Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi appeared briefly on state television on Tuesday signaling his defiance in the face of a mounting revolt against his 41-year rule.

Qadhafi’s forces have fought an increasingly bloody battle to keep him in power, with fighting spreading to the capital Tripoli and local residents saying warplanes had bombed the city.

In his first address since the protests started last week, he made a 22-second statement in front of his house to deny the reports he had fled to Venezuela, ruled by his friend President Hugo Chavez.

“I want to show that I’m in Tripoli and not in Venezuela. Do not believe the channels belonging to stray dogs,” Qadhafi said, under a large umbrella and leaning out of a van.
“I wanted to say something to the youths at Green Square (in Tripoli) and stay up late with them but it started raining.

“Thank God, it’s a good thing,” added Qadhafi, who took power in a military coup in 1969 when he toppled King Idriss.

Security forces have killed dozens of protesters across the vast, thinly populated nation stretching from the Mediterranean deep into the Sahara desert, human rights groups and witnesses said, prompting widespread condemnation from world leaders.

Demonstrations spread to Tripoli after several cities in the east — including Benghazi where the protests had first erupted — appeared to fall to the opposition, according to residents.

Cracks were beginning to appear among Qadhafi’s supporters, with a group of army officers calling on soldiers to “join the people” and two senior fighter pilots defecting to nearby Malta.

The UN Security Council will hold a closed-door meeting on Tuesday to discuss the crisis, diplomats said.

Tripoli, a Mediterranean coastal city, appeared calm in the early hours of Tuesday.

“There is heavy rain at the moment, so people are at home,” one resident said. “I am in the east of the city and have not heard clashes.”

Earlier, residents reported gunfire in parts of Tripoli and one political activist said warplanes had bombed the city.

“What we are witnessing today is unimaginable. Warplanes and helicopters are indiscriminately bombing one area after another.

There are many, many dead,” Adel Mohamed Saleh said in a live broadcast on al Jazeera television. “Anyone who moves, even if they are in their car, they will hit you.”

US-based Human Rights Watch said at least 233 people had been killed in five days of violence. Opposition groups put the figure much higher. No independent verification was available and communications with Libya from outside was difficult.

WORLD CONDEMNATION

Revolutions which deposed the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt have shaken the Arab world and inspired protests across the Middle East and North Africa, threatening the grip of long-entrenched autocratic leaders.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it was “time to stop this unacceptable bloodshed.” EU foreign ministers condemned the killing of protesters and pledged to support democratic transition resulting from the unrest.

Dabbashi and other diplomats at Libya’s mission to the United Nations announced on Monday they had sided with protesters and were calling for Qadhafi’s overthrow.

Earlier, a group of army officers issued a statement urging fellow soldiers to “join the people” and help remove Qadhafi, Al Arabiya television said. The justice minister has also resigned in protest at the use of force.

Two Libyan fighter jets landed in Malta, their pilots defecting after they said they had been ordered to bomb protesters, Maltese government officials said.

Libyan guards have withdrawn from their side of the border with Egypt and people’s committees were now in control of the crossing, the Egyptian army said, without making it clear if the groups now in control of the border were loyal to Qadhafi.

Ninety percent of Libyan oil exports come from the eastern region of Cyrenaica, epicentre of the revolt. Brent crude prices hit $108 a barrel on fears the violence could disrupt supplies from the OPEC member.

Output at one of Libya’s oil fields was reported to have been stopped by a workers’ strike and some European oil companies withdrew expatriate workers and suspended operations.

A flamboyant figure with his flowing robes and a penchant for female bodyguards, the long-serving Qadhafi is one of the most recognisable figures on the world stage.

He has shunned by the West for much of his rule which accused him of links to terrorism and revolutionary movements.

US President Ronald Reagan called him a “mad dog” and sent planes to bomb Libya in 1986.

Qadhafi was particularly reviled after the 1988 Pan Am airliner bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, by Libyan agents in which 270 people were killed.