Libya’s rebel leadership said tonight that the oil port of Ras Lanuf in the east of the country is under heavy bombardment, but denied its fighters had been driven out by government forces.
Asked about a Libyan state television report that forces loyal to Muammar Gadafy had cleared Ras Lanuf of armed gangs, Hafiz Ghoga, spokesman for the National Libyan Council, said: "No, this is not accurate."
"All we are seeing there is bombardment with heavy artillery from the sea and the air," he said.
Rebels, who have taken swathes of territory in the east, have been stopped from taking the coastal road west to the prized target of Sirte, Col Gadafy's hometown, by tanks and warplanes.
Col Gadafy's son tonight said his father was ready to unleash the full might of his forces to crush the three-week-old insurrection.
"It's time for liberation. It's time for action. We are moving now," Saif al-Islam told Reuters in an interview. "Time is out now...we gave them two weeks (for negotiations)."
He said that Libya would defeat the rebels even if Western powers intervened. "We will never ever give up. We will never ever surrender. This is our country. We fight here in Libya," he said.
Rebel fighters said Ras Lanuf's residential district, including the vicinity of its hospital, came under bombardment and one said government forces were advancing into the area, backed by rocket fire from sea, air and ground.
Insurgents also reported an air strike on Brega, another oil port 90 km (50 miles) east of Ras Lanuf, indicating that Gadafy loyalists had not only halted a westwards insurgent push in its tracks but were making inroads into their eastern hinterland.
Earlier, Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said any Nato military action in Libya would have to be based on there being a demonstrable need and a clear mandate and with support in the region.
"Any operation we undertake needs to respect three key principles: firstly there has to be demonstrable need for Nato action, secondly there has to be a clear legal basis, and thirdly there has to be firm regional support," he said, as Nato defence ministers met to discuss options to respond to the turmoil in Libya, including a possible no-fly zone.
The rebel council said it was keen on a no-fly zone being imposed to restrict Col Gadafy's use of warplanes.
"The Libyan people are facing genocide, the annihilation of an entire population through the use of air power and heavy artillery. This does not just threaten the security of Libya but that of the whole region," Mr Ghoga said.
"The UN is capable of taking the necessary steps to stop such carnage."
At the UN Security Council, where Britain and France are pushing for a resolution authorising a no-fly zone, diplomats said the US had made clear they were not ready to press ahead with the measure.
Meanwhile, Russia will ban all weapons sales to Libya, the Kremlin said in a statement today, effectively suspending billions of dollars worth of arms contracts.
The Kremlin decree brings Moscow in line with an arms embargo and other punitive measures imposed in a February 26th United Nations Security Council resolution.
But Russia, which holds the power of veto on the UN Security Council, has warned it opposes military intervention in Libya even as the US and Nato weigh potential options in support of the rebels, including the no-fly zone.
Russia, the world's second-largest arms exporter after the United States, was one of the main weapons suppliers to Libya.
Today's order, signed by president Dmitry Medvedev, "bans the export from the Russian Federation to Libya as well as the sale, delivery and transfer... of all types of arms and related materials, including weapons and ammunition, combat vehicles and military hardware", the Kremlin said.
Reuters