US secretary of state Hillary Clinton last night stepped up Western calls on Libyan leader Muammar Gadafy to quit, brushing off his threat to attack Europeans in their homes and offices.
"Instead of issuing threats, Gadafy should put the well-being and the interests of his own people first and he should step down from power and help facilitate a democratic transition," Ms Clinton told reporters on a trip to Spain.
In an address relayed to some 100,000 supporters in Tripoli's Green Square on Friday, Col Gadafy urged Nato to halt its bombing campaign or risk seeing Libyan fighters descend on Europe "like a swarm of locusts or bees".
“Retreat, you have no chance of beating this brave people," he said. "They can attack your homes, your offices and your families, which will become military targets just as you have transformed our offices, headquarters, houses and children into what you regard as legitimate military targets," he said.
Nato announced it had stepped up strikes on government forces in west Libya including the capital Tripoli, saying it had carried out more than 50 attacks since Monday.
Spanish foreign minister Trinidad Jimenez said the alliance stance was unchanged. "Spain's and the international coalition's response is to maintain the unity and determination with which we have been working these past months," she said.
African Union leaders agreed on Friday that member states would not execute the arrest warrant for Col Gadafy, leaving open the possibility that he could go into exile in one of the African Union's 53 nations. The grouping also offered to host talks on a ceasefire and a transition to democratic government, but did not call on Col Gadafy to step down and left open whether he had a future role.
Abdel-Hafiz Ghoga, vice president of the Benghazi-based rebel council said: "We reject the African Union proposal because it includes nothing concerning our demands. We are only demanding one thing: Gadafy's resignation ... We can gain freedom and democracy only if Gadafy steps down. I think we can obtain freedom only through military operations and we will be able to do this."
Libyan rebels who had advanced to within 80km of the capital were stopped in their tracks on Friday by a barrage of rocket fire from government forces, underlining the dogged resistance of Gadafy troops to a five-month revolt.
"(It) was obviously a strategic withdrawal because of the battlefield situation and the amount of bombardment that the revolutionary forces were receiving," said rebel spokesman Ahmed Bani. "But we hope to counter that within the next 48 hours."
In Tripoli, a senior source in Col Gadafy's government said there was reliable intelligence indicating the rebels were planning to attack oil export terminals in the eastern towns of Brega and Ras Lanuf. "The Libyan government will do whatever (possible) to prevent such attacks," said the source, who did not want to be identified.
Nato military officials refuse to characterise the situation on the ground as a stalemate after a 104-day bombing campaign that has strained alliance firepower and tested unity, with internal divisions over strategy surfacing. Analysts say part of Nato's strategy is to use the attacks to hinder efforts by authorities to put down any future uprising in Tripoli.
Britain's defence ministry said Apache helicopters hit three tanks and a bunker firing position in an attack on an army camp west of Tripoli on Friday. Libyan state TV said Nato also bombed the central Al-Jufrah region yesterday.
Reuters