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Foreign powers
accelerated efforts to help oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on
Monday as rebels fought government forces trying to take back strategic
coastal cities on either side of the capital, Tripoli.

Mr Gaddafi’s forces
have been trying for days to push back a revolt that has won over large
parts of the military, ended his control over eastern Libya and is
fending off government assaults in western cities near Tripoli.

It is difficult for reporters to move around western Libya and reports of fighting were hard to verify independently.

But witnesses in
both Misrata, a city of a half a million people 200 km (125 miles) to
the east of Tripoli, and Zawiyah, a strategic refinery town 50 km (30
miles) to the west, said government forces were mounting repeated
attacks.

“An aircraft was
shot down this morning while it was firing on the local radio station.
Protesters captured its crew,” a witness in Misrata, Mohamed, told
Reuters by telephone.

“Fighting to
control the military air base started last night and is still going on.
Mr Gaddafi’s forces control only a small part of the base. Protesters
control a large part of this base where there is ammunition.” A
resident of Zawiyah, called Ibrahim, told Reuters by telephone: “We are
expecting attacks at any moment by brigades belonging to (Gaddafi’s
son) Khamis.

They are on the
outskirts of the town, about 5-7 km away. They are in large numbers.”
In the capital, Mr Gaddafi’s last stronghold, a Reuters reporter saw
about 400 people protesting in a square in the Tajoura district, an
area already partly outside his control.

Soon after, men in sports utility vehicles pulled up and fired into the air in an attempt to disperse the protest.

Sanctions

Foreign governments
are increasing the pressure on Mr Gaddafi to leave in the hope of
ending fighting that has claimed at least 1,000 lives and restoring
order to a country that accounts for 2 percent of the world’s oil
production.

The U.N. Security
Council on Saturday slapped sanctions on Mr Gaddafi and other Libyan
officials and imposed an arms embargo and froze Libyan assets.

European Union
governments approved their sanctions against Mr Gaddafi in Brussels on
Monday, implementing the U.N. resolution sooner than expected.

In The Hague, the
International Criminal Court prosecutor said he would finish a
preliminary examination of the violence within days, after which he
could open a full inquiry — a step mandated by the Council that could
have taken months.

France proposed an emergency summit of EU leaders for Thursday, EU diplomats said.

In an address to
the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, U.S. Secretary of State,
Hillary Clinton said Mr Gaddafi was using “mercenaries and thugs” to
suppress his own people and said the Libyan leader must step down
immediately.

“Gaddafi and those
around him must be held accountable for these acts, which violate
international legal obligations and common decency,” Mrs Clinton said,
adding that nothing was off the table as the international community
considers its next steps.

A U.S. official in
Geneva said a central aim of sanctions was to “send a message not only
to Gaddafi … but to the people around Gaddafi, who are the ones we’re
really seeking to influence”.

German Foreign
Minister, Guido Westerwelle said after meeting Mrs Clinton that he was
proposing a 60-day freeze on money transfers to Libya, and believed
other countries were open to the idea.

“We must do
everything to ensure that no money is going into the hands of the
Libyan dictator’s family, and that they have no opportunity to hire new
foreign soldiers to repress their people,” he said.

But there was less
support among foreign ministers in Geneva for an Australian proposal to
stop Mr Gaddafi’s forces attacking rebels from the air.

Asked if he had
discussed a no-fly zone in his meeting with Mrs Clinton, Russian
Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov retorted: “Absolutely not. It was not
mentioned by anyone.”

Resentment

Revolutions in
neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt have helped to ignite resentment of four
decades of often bloody political repression under Mr Gaddafi as well
as his failure to use Libya’s oil wealth to tackle widespread poverty
and lack of opportunity.

The 68-year-old leader has vowed to fight to the death, but a spokesman struck a new, conciliatory tone on Monday.

Mussa Ibrahim told
reporters in Tripoli that government forces had fired on civilians, but
said this was because they were not trained to deal with civilian
unrest.

He said the
government was still in control of Zawiyah, even though reporters who
were taken there at the weekend saw a town centre under rebel control.

“What you saw was
only the centre,” he said. “We allowed, we let these people with their
guns to stand there. Zawiyah has not fallen. The government could have
easily killed them and has not done so, because the government has not
been not bloody.” He said the revolt had “started as a genuine peaceful
movement.”

“We also believe it
is time for change,” he said. “But this movement has been hijacked by
the West … and by Islamic militants.” Regional experts expect rebels
eventually to take the capital and kill or capture Mr Gaddafi, but add
that he has the firepower to foment chaos or civil war — a prospect he
and his sons have warned of.

In the eastern city
of Benghazi, opponents of Mr Gaddafi said they have formed a National
Libyan Council to be the “face” of the revolution. They said they
wanted no foreign intervention and had not made contact with foreign
governments.

Oil

Opposition forces are largely in control of Libya’s oil facilities, which are mostly located in the east.

Fatih Birol, chief
economist of the International Energy Agency, told Reuters Insider TV
in Paris that industry reports suggested Libya’s oil output had been
halved.

Bank of America,
Merrill Lynch estimated in a note to clients that Libya was losing
about 1.2 million barrels per day, or 75 percent of its pre-revolt
output, and said the unrest could mean Libyan supplies were unavailable
for months.

Industry sources said actual shipments were at a standstill.

Benchmark Brent oil futures were slightly lower at just under $112 a barrel.

Wealthy states have
sent planes and ships to bring home expatriate workers but many more,
from poorer countries, are stranded. Thousands of Egyptians have been
streaming into Tunisia, complaining that Cairo has done nothing to help
them.

The United Nations
refugee agency said on Sunday nearly 100,000 people have fled violence
in Libya in the past week in a growing humanitarian crisis.