West strikes Libya forces, NATO sees 90-day campaign, Posted by Meosha Eaton

* Western planes hit ground targets

* NATO planners assume 90-day campaign

* Libya suffering fuel shortage

* Sudan allows overflights for no fly zone-envoys

(Adds rebel strike on Ajdabiyah, quote)

By Maria Golovnina and Michael Georgy

TRIPOLI, March 25 (Reuters) - Western warplanes bombed Muammar Gaddafi's armour in eastern Libya on Friday to try to break a battlefield stalemate and help rebels take the strategic town of Ajdabiyah.

The African Union said it was planning to facilitate talks to help end war in the oil producing country. But NATO said its no-fly zone operation could last three months, and France cautioned the conflict would not end soon.

In Washington, a U.S. military spokeswoman said the coalition fired 16 Tomahawk cruise missiles and flew 153 air sorties in the past 24 hours targeting Gaddafi's artillery, mechanized forces and command and control infrastructure.

Western governments hope the raids, launched on Saturday with the aim of protecting civilians, will shift the balance of power in favour of the Arab world's most violent popular revolt.

In Tripoli, residents reported another air raid just before dawn, hearing the roar of a warplane, followed by a distant explosion and bursts of anti-aircraft gunfire.

Rebel forces massing for an attack on the strategically important town of Ajdabiyah fired steady bursts of artillery at army positions after Gaddafi's forces refused a ceasefire offer.

Opposition forces on the road to Ajdabiyah seemed more organised than in recent days, when their disarray stirred doubts about their ability to challenge Gaddafi.

They had set up road blocks at regular intervals and Reuters counted at least four truck-based rocket launchers -- heavier weaponry than had been seen earlier this week.

Winning back Ajdabiyah would be the biggest victory for the eastern rebels since their initial push westwards went into reverse two weeks ago and the better equipped Gaddafi forces drove them back towards the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

It would also suggest that allied airstrikes are could be capable of helping rebel fighters topple Gaddafi.

NOT DAYS, WEEKS

At African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, AU commission chairman Jean Ping said it was planning to facilitate talks to help end the conflict in a process that should end with democratic elections.

It was the first statement by the AU, which had rejected any form of foreign intervention in the Libya crisis, since the U.N. Security Council imposed a no-fly zone last week and air strikes began on Libyan military targets.

But in Brussels, a NATO official said planning for NATO's no-fly operation assumed a mission lasting 90 days, although this could be extended or shortened as required.

France said the war could drag on for weeks.

"I doubt that it will be days," Admiral Edouard Guillaud, the head of French armed forces, told France Info radio. "I think it will be weeks. I hope it will not take months."

Guillaud said a French plane destroyed an army artillery battery near the eastern frontline town of Ajdabiyah, 150 km (90 miles) south of Benghazi. Ajdabiyah is strategically important for both sides as it commands the coastal highway to the west.

In London, the Ministry of Defence said British Tornado aircraft had also been active there, firing missiles overnight at Libyan military vehicles threatening civilians.

Later in the afternoon, Western warplanes were again active over Ajdabiyah and a Reuters correspondent close to the town heard three large explosions and large plumes of black smoke rising above the eastern entrance to the town.

A rocket apparently fired from rebel positions then hit the eastern gate, sending a fireball into the sky.

"The eastern gate has fallen and we are sending a team to check before moving forward," rebel Colonel Hamad al-Hasi told Reuters near the town.

In the eastern rebel bastion of Benghazi, rebel spokesman Mustafa Gheriani said he expected Ajdabiyah to fall on Friday or Saturday following the overnight British and French strikes.

"This (the strikes) will weaken their forces and more importantly their morale," he said, adding the level of Western strikes was "sufficient. We feel safe under their protection".

Simon Brooks, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross operations in eastern Libya, reported big population movements from the Ajdabiyah area because of the fighting.

The ICRC was sending 700 tents to the area of Ajdabiyah to help displaced people, he said. In Ajdabiyah, the hospital "is obviously very close to where the fighting is going on. It is extremely difficult for people to get access to the hospital."

Officials and rebels said aid organisations were able to deliver some supplies to the western city of Misrata but were concerned because of government snipers in the city centre.

NATO said on Thursday after four days of tough negotiations that it would enforce the no-fly zone but stopped short of taking full command of U.N.-backed military operations to protect civilians from forces loyal to Gaddafi.

SUDAN SAID TO SUPPORT NO FLY ZONE

Differences over the scope the U.N. resolution gave for military action against Gaddafi's army led to days of heated arguments within NATO about its role in the operation.

The United States, embroiled in Iraq and Afghanistan, is keen to step back and play a supporting role in Libya in order to preserve alliance unity and maintain the support of Muslim countries for the U.N.-mandated intervention.

Despite the apparently cumbersome structure of the planned new command and Arab jitters on the use of force, the operation continues to receive support from beyond Western ranks.

The United Arab Emirates said it would send 12 planes to take part in operations to enforce the no-fly zone.

Qatar has already contributed two fighters and two military transport planes to help enforce the no-fly zone.

Western jets pounded targets in southern Libya on Thursday but failed to prevent government tanks re-entering Misrata, whose main hospital was besieged by government snipers.

In Tripoli, a Libyan energy official said on Thursday Libya was short of fuel and needs to import more, but a ship with fuel now bound for Tripoli may be stopped by Western forces.

Officials and hospital workers said civilians, including women, were among those killed in the latest Western air strikes in the Libyan capital. There was no way to independently verify the report. (Reporting by Mohammed Abbas and Angus MacSwan in Benghazi, Hamid Ould Ahmed and Christian Lowe in Algiers, Tom Perry in Cairo, David Brunnstrom in Brussels, Phil Stewart in Moscow, Andrew Quinn in Washington, Catherine Bremer, Emmanuel Jarry and Yves Clarisse in Paris, Rosalba O'Brien in London; Writing by William Maclean and Jon Hemming; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Rebels wary of Gaddafi forces near east Libya town, Posted by Meosha Eaton

* Rebels were driven back before Western air strikes

* Air strikes help cripple Gaddafi's heavy armour

* Rebel forces depend on pick-ups with maching guns

By Mohammed Abbas and Angus MacSwan

NEAR AJDABIYAH, Libya, March 22 (Reuters) - Rebels in east Libya outside Ajdabiyah were not advancing on the strategic town on Tuesday because heavily armed troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi could still overhelm them despite Western air strikes.

Rebels at the frontline about 5 km (3 miles) outside the town located at the gateway to the rebel-held east said three nights of air strikes were helping cripple Gaddafi's heavy armour, but his forces were still a potent threat.

"Gaddafi has tanks and trucks with missiles," said Ahmed al-Aroufi, a rebel fighter at the frontline.

The rebel forces had been driven as far back as their headquarters in Benghazi by Gaddafi's warplanes, tanks and artillery before U.N.-air strikes were launched on Saturday by France, Britain, the United States and others in a coalition.

"We need the no-fly zone for them to strike the heavy armour," he said, adding a warning against any more direct intervention.

"If they bring land forces we will leave Gaddafi alone and they will be our new target," Aroufi said, echoing rebel opposition to any involvement of foreign ground forces.

"We don't depend on anyone but God, not France or America. We started this revolution without them through the sweat of our own brow, and that is how we will finish it."

There have been signs of tensions at the front as rebels have failed to make swift progress. There is no obvious sign of a clear command structure to guide what is mostly a rag-tag force of enthusiastic but inexperienced fighters.

Overhearing Aroufi speaking to the Reuters media team, another rebel nearby, Rashad Shaafi, said: "If you want to attack, go and flank them, or do you just want to pose for the cameras?"

Gaddafi's burned out tanks, armoured personnel carriers and other vehicles destroyed by Western warplanes litter the road that his forces used on their advance on Benghazi, where the rebels have their headquarters.

Rebels say strikes halted that offensive but they also say the Libyan leader has plenty more equipment to use against their forces which rely largely on 4x4 pick ups mounted with machine guns, rocket propelled grenade launchers and other light arms.

There was no obvious sign of rebel heavy equipment at the front on Monday, although in past days and weeks rebels have been seen with a few tanks and other heavier equipment. (Writing by Edmund Blair in Cairo; Editing by Matthew Jones)

NY Times journalists at Turkish embassy in Libya, Posted by Meosha Eaton

ANKARA, March 21 (Reuters) - Four New York Times journalists captured by Libyan forces while covering the conflict there are at the Turkish embassy in Tripoli and will be sent home within hours, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Monday.

The four are two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and Beirut bureau chief Anthony Shadid, reporter and videographer Stephen Farrell and photographers Tyler Hicks and Lynsey Addario.

"Four New York times correspondents are currently in our embassy in Libya. The necessary work will be conducted for them to be returned to their countries within a few hours," Davutoglu told reporters.

The son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Seif al-Islam, said last week at least one of the correspondents was arrested by the Libyan army after it captured the city of Ajdabiya from rebels.

Turkey had been involved in seeking the correspondents' release. (Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz, writing by Daren Butler)

Gaddafi advances, no-fly diplomacy falters, Posted by Meosha Eaton

* Libya government forces attack Misrata, 5 reported killed

* Gaddafi son says Benghazi will fall in next 48 hours

* Kouchner berates outside world for "doing nothing"

(Recast, adds Kouchner, Saif al-ISlam, Misrata death toll)

By Mohammed Abbas

TOBRUK, Libya, March 16 (Reuters) - The Libyan army shelled a rebel-held city and closed in on the opposition bastion of Benghazi on Wednesday as diplomatic steps to stop long-serving autocrat Muammar Gaddafi crushing a rebellion ran aground.

In Geneva, former French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner berated the international community for its delay in imposing a no-fly zone, saying it was already too late to save lives.

"A no-fly zone is a minimum. It's certainly already too late," Kouchner said of Gadadfi's crackdown on the increasingly vulnerable-looking uprising, which was inspired by pro-democracy rebellions that toppled the Egyptian and Tunisian presidents.

"Even if we were able to decide today, it's so late," he told World Radio Switzerland. "We've known since three weeks that the poor civil society, the poor people, are dying. And we are doing nothing."

In Benghazi, seat of the insurgents' provisional national council, the mood was a mixture of defiance and nervousness, with some citizens predicting a bloodbath and others confident the rebels would still snatch victory against the government offensive.

Italy, a potential base for such a no-fly zone proposed by Britain and France, ruled out military intervention in the oil-exporting north African country.

"We cannot have war, the international community should not, does not want and cannot do it," Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said in Rome.

The Libyan army told residents of Benghazi to lay down their arms, and one of Gaddafi's sons, Saif al-Islam, told Euronews TV that Libya's second largest city would fall whether or not world powers imposed a no-fly zone.

"Everything will be over in 48 hours," he said.

Aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres said the violence had forced it to withdraw its staff from Benghazi and begin moving teams to Alexandria in Egypt.

Residents in Misrata, the country's third largest city 200 km (130 miles) east of Tripoli, Gaddafi's stronghold, said his forces attacked the rebel-held city with tanks and artillery.

The shelling killed at least five people and wounded 11, a doctor at Misrata hospital told Reuters by telephone.

"Very heavy bombardments are taking place now from three sides. They are using heavy weapons including tanks and artillery ... They have yet to enter the town," said one resident, called Mohammed, by telephone.

Foreign powers have condemned Gaddafi's crackdown but show little appetite for action to support the revolt. A Gaddafi victory and the suppression of protests in Bahrain could turn the tide in the region against pro-democracy movements.

Supporters of a no-fly zone to halt Libyan government air strikes on rebels circulated a draft resolution at the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that would authorise one, but other states said questions remained.

The draft was distributed at a closed-door meeting by Britain and Lebanon after the Arab League called on the council on Saturday to set up a no-fly zone.

German Ambassador Peter Wittig told reporters after the meeting his country still had queries, and noted that while the Arab League had called for a no-fly zone it also opposed any foreign military intervention.

NATO has set three conditions for it to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya: regional support, proof its help is needed and a Security Council resolution.

An Arab League call for a no-fly zone satisfies the first condition, but with access to most of Libya barred by Gaddafi's security forces, hard evidence that NATO intervention is needed to avert atrocities or a humanitarian disaster is scarce.

Growing numbers of Libyans are now crossing into Egypt fleeing Gaddafi's advance, the U.N. refugee agency said.


GADDAFI TAUNTS THE WEST

In a televised speech, Gaddafi taunted Western countries that have backed the imposition of a no-fly zone to come and get him.

"Strike Libya?" he asked. "We'll be the one who strikes you! We struck you in Algeria, in Vietnam. You want to strike us? Come and give it a try."

In an interview with the Italian daily Il Giornale published on Tuesday, Gaddafi said that if western forces attacked Libya, he would ally with al Qaeda "and declare holy war".

In Benghazi, where the revolt began in mid-February, residents said they had found leaflets lying in the city streets suggesting that if they gave up the fight against Gaddafi now, they would not be harmed or punished.

The leaflest accused rebels of being driven by al Qaeda and high on drugs, an allegation routinely levelled by the government against an uprising that was inspired by pro-democracy rebellions that toppled the Egyptian and Tunisian presidents.

Salah Ben-Saud, a retired undersecretary at the Agriculture Ministry, said in Benghazi that life in the town was normal and "pro-Gaddafi people have not really shown their face."

"There were rumours that he (Gaddafi) would try to take back Benghazi and that made people a bit nervous, but he didn't and people here don't think he would succeed anyway if he tried."

Thousands gathered in a square in Benghazi on Tuesday evening denouncing Gaddafi as a tyrant and throwing shoes and other objects at his image projected upside down on a wall.

The rebels' position looked highly vulnerable after government troops took control of the junction at Ajdabiyah, opening the way to Benghazi.

(Reporting by Maria Golovnina and Michael Georgy in Tripoli, Tom Pfeiffer in Benghazi, Mariam Karouny in Djerba, Tunisia, Tarek Amara in Tunis, Louis Charbonneau and Patrick Worsnip at the United Nations, James Regan, Tim Hepher, Arshad Mohammed and John Irish in Paris; Writing by William Maclean; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Arab states back Libya no-fly zone against Gaddafi, Posted by Meosha Eaton

* Arab League decision a surprise
* Government troops attack Misrata
* Rebels pushed back in the east
(Updates with Arab League decision)

By Michael Georgy and Yasmine Saleh
RAS LANUF, Libya/CAIRO March 12 (Reuters) - Arab countries appealed to the United Nations to impose a no-fly zone on Libya as pro-government troops backed by warplanes fought to drive rebels from remaining strongholds in the west of the country.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa said the League, meeting in Cairo on Saturday, had decided that "serious crimes and great violations" committed by the government of Muammar Gaddafi against his people had stripped it of legitimacy.

The League's call for a no-fly zone could provide the regional endorsement that NATO has said is needed for any military action to curb Gaddafi. The League also said it had opened contacts with the Libyan rebel leadership.

Events on the ground, however, are moving more quickly than international diplomatic efforts. The EU and the United States have both balked at proposing a no-fly zone as Gaddafi steps up his effort to crush the uprising against his four-decade rule.

Pro-Gaddafi troops unleashed an assault on the town of Misrata, the only rebel outpost between the capital and the eastern front around the oil town of Ras Lanuf.

"We are hearing shelling. We have no choice but to fight," rebel spokesman Gemal said by telephone from Misrata. "I can hear loud explosions," said a resident who would only give his name as Mohammad. "Everybody is rushing home, the shops have closed and the rebels are taking up positions."

Mussa Ibrahim, a government spokesman in Tripoli, could neither confirm nor deny a military operation was under way.

"There is a hard core of al Qaeda fighters there," he said. "It looks like a Zawiyah scenario. Some people will give up, some will disappear ... Tribal leaders are talking to them. Those who stay behind, we will deal with them accordingly."

It took a week of repeated assaults by government troops, backed by tanks and air power, to crush the uprising in Zawiyah, a much smaller town 50 km (30 miles) west of Tripoli.

While the death toll in Zawiyah is unknown, much of the town was destroyed, with buildings around the main square showing gaping holes blown by tank rounds and rockets. Gaddafi's forces bulldozed a cemetery where rebel fighters had been buried.


"BRACING FOR A MASSACRE"
Gaddafi's guns are now trained on Misrata. "We are bracing for a massacre," said Mohammad Ahmed, a rebel fighter. "We know it will happen and Misrata will be like Zawiyah, but we believe in God. We do not have the capabilities to fight Gaddafi and his forces. They have tanks and heavy weapons and we have our belief and trust in God."

Further east, Gaddafi's troops pushed insurgents out of Ras Lanuf, a day after making an amphibious assault on the oil port and pitting tanks and jets against rebels armed with light weapons and machineguns mounted on pick-up trucks.

Libyan troops were waving posters of Gaddafi and painting over rebel graffiti in Ras Lanuf later in the day when foreign journalists arrived on an official visit.

Libya's flat desert terrain favours the use of heavy armour and air power. The Libyan army is also better trained and more disciplined than the rag-tag, though enthusiastic, rebel force.

The rebels have repeatedly called for foreign countries to impose a no-fly zone to stop air strikes on cities, while insisting they do not want military intervention on the ground.
Arab League Secretary General Moussa told a news conference after Cairo talks: "The Arab League has officially requested the U.N. Security Council to impose a no-fly zone against any military action against the Libyan people."

It was not immediately clear how Russia and China, who have veto rights in the Security Council and have publicly opposed a no-fly zone, would react to a call for action from a regional body; the more so since the call was, according to Omani Foreign Minister Youssef bin Alawi bin Abdullah, backed unanimously.

The terms of any no-fly zone would have to be agreed carefully and time may be working against the rebels. Its general aim would be to stop Gaddafi using his air force in attacking rebel forces, transport and reconnaissance.

President Barack Obama said the United States and its allies were "tightening the noose" on Gaddafi and that he had not taken any options off the table, a hint at military action. But there is little enthusiasm in Washington for enforcing a no-fly zone without United Nations backing.


DISCUSSIONS
European Union leaders meeting in Brussels on Friday sidestepped a British and French call to draw up a U.N. Security Council resolution to authorise a no-fly zone over Libya. Instead, they called for a three-way summit with the African Union and the Arab League to discuss the crisis further.

Western states' reluctance to intervene in an Arab conflict, amid pleas from the rebels and now the League, might win them few friends in a Middle East now in a period of transformation. "The risks of intervening are great. But the Arabs in revolt share a fundamental value with people in the West -- the call of freedom. Whoever does not honour this debt will find himself, five or six years from now, back sitting with Gaddafi in his Bedouin tent," wrote Tomas Avenarius in the German Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

"If Gaddafi goes on slaughtering his people, the Americans and Europeans will have to get involved in the end. Their own claims to morality and the calls from supporters of human rights ... will not let thousands die in Libya while politicians look on idly from the far side of the Mediterranean." Ahmed, a rebel fighter in Misrata, said: "The fighters here and the people of Misrata hold the international community responsible for the fall of Zawiyah and for all the deaths that happened. Gaddafi is responsible, but they are partners in crime.

"They do not care for us. All they care for is the oil, and it seems they are waiting to see who is going to win so that they can deal with them, whether it's Gaddafi or us. They do not want to burn their bridges with him. All they do is say they are assessing the situation. Why are they taking so long?"

(Additional reporting by Maria Golovnina in Zawiyah, Mohammed Abbas in Brega, Tom Pfeiffer in Benghazi, Mariam Karouny in Ras Jdir, Tunisia, Writing by Jon Hemming and Ralph Boulton; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Gaddafi forces strike back in west and east Libya, Posted by Meosha Eaton

* Government forces intensify campaign to crush revolt
* Aircraft strike behind rebel lines
* Tripoli denies offering to negotiate Gaddafi's exit

(Adds more from Zawiyah, other details)

By Maria Golovnina and Alexander Dziadosz

TRIPOLI/RAS LANUF, Libya, March 8 (Reuters) - Libyan government forces attacked rebels with rockets, tanks and warplanes on western and eastern fronts, intensifying their offensive to crush the revolt against Muammar Gaddafi.

Rising casualties and the threats of hunger and a refugee crisis increased pressure on foreign governments to act, but they struggled to agree a strategy for dealing with the turmoil, many fearful of moving from sanctions alone to military action. In besieged Zawiyah, the closest rebel-held city to Tripoli, trapped residents cowered from the onslaught on Tuesday.

"Fighting is still going on now. Gaddafi's forces are using tanks. There are also sporadic air strikes ... they could not reach the centre of the town which is still in the control of the revolutionaries," a resident called Ibrahim said by phone. "Many buildings have been destroyed including mosques. About 40 to 50 tanks are taking part in the bombardment." In the east, much of which is under rebel control, warplanes bombed rebel positions around the oil port of Ras Lanuf.

Rebel euphoria seemed to have dimmed. "People are dying out there. Gaddafi's forces have rockets and tanks," Abdel Salem Mohamed, 21, told Reuters near Ras Lanuf. "You see this? This is no good," he said of his light machinegun. The rebel leadership said that if Gaddafi stepped down within 72 hours it would not seek to bring him to justice.

Earlier, the rebels said they had rejected an offer from the Libyan leader to negotiate his surrender of power. The government called such reports "absolute nonsense". Britain and France led a drive at the U.N. for a no-fly zone which would prevent Gaddafi from unleashing air raids or moving reinforcements by air. The Arab League and several Gulf states have also called for such a step.

"It is unacceptable that Colonel Gaddafi unleashes so much violence on his own people and we are all gravely concerned about what would happen if he were to try to do that on an even greater basis," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said. Russia and China, who have veto power in the U.N. Security Council, are cool towards the idea of a no-fly zone.

The U.S. government, whose interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan enraged many of the world's Muslims, said it was weighing up military options and that action should be taken only with international backing. Hafiz Ghoga, spokesman for the rebel National Libyan Council, told a news conference in the rebel base of Benghazi:

"We will complete our victory when we are afforded a no-fly zone. If there was also action to stop him (Gaddafi) from recruiting mercenaries, his end would come within hours."

Rebels still controlled the central square of Zawiyah, 50 km (30 miles) west of Tripoli, on Tuesday and were using loud hailers to urge residents to defend their positions, said a Ghanaian worker who fled the town on Tuesday. Sky television footage of fighting in the town over the weekend showed crowds fleeing gunfire and a blood-spattered hospital crammed with the injured, some making victory signs from stretchers. It showed bodies of dead soldiers, others it said had switched sides, and captured tanks.

A government spokesman insisted troops were mostly in control on Tuesday. "Maybe 30-40 people, hiding in the streets and in the cemetery. They are desperate," he said in Tripoli. A Libyan man who lives abroad said he spoke by phone on Tuesday to a friend in Zawiyah who described desperate scenes. "Many buildings are completely destroyed, including hospitals, electricity lines and generators," he said.

"People cannot run away, it's cordoned off. They cannot flee. All those who can fight are fighting, including teenagers. Children and women are being hidden."
Tanks were firing everywhere, he said.The reports could not be verified independently as foreign correspondents have been prevented from entering Zawiyah and other cities near the capital without an official escort.

HOMES HIT
Air strikes hit at rebels behind the no-man's land between the coastal towns of Ras Lanuf and Bin Jawad, 550 km (340 miles) east of Tripoli and the site of oil terminals.
One strike smashed a house in a residential area of Ras Lanuf, gouging a big hole in the ground floor. Mustafa Askat, an oil worker, said one bomb had wrecked a water pipeline and this would affect water supplies to the city.

"We have a hospital inside, we have sick people and they need water urgently," he said.
A convoy from the U.N. food agency was scheduled to reach the rebel-held port of Benghazi on Tuesday to deliver the first food aid in Libya since the revolt erupted three weeks ago. The rebel army -- a rag-tag outfit largely made up of young volunteers and military defectors -- made swift gains in the first week of the uprising which saw them take control of the east and challenge the government near Tripoli.

But their momentum appears to have stalled as Gaddafi's troops have pushed back with heavy weapons.Rebels said government forces had dug in their tanks near Bin Jawad while rebels retreated to Ras Lanuf. The two towns are about 60 km (40 miles) apart on the strategic coastal road along the Mediterranean sea. The emerging front line divides the country along ancient regional lines, with key oil facilities stuck in the middle.


72-HOUR DEADLINE
Gaddafi has denounced the rebels as drug-addled youths or al Qaeda-backed terrorists, and said he will die in Libya rather than surrender.

"If he leaves Libya immediately, during 72 hours, and stops the bombardment, we as Libyans will step back from pursuing him for crimes," Mustafa Abdel Jalil, head of the rebel National Libyan Council, told Al Jazeera television. Representatives of the Libyan opposition are to meet the European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in Strasbourg on Tuesday evening before addressing the European Parliament.

The Libyan uprising is the bloodiest of a tide of protests against autocratic rulers in North Africa and Middle East which has already seen the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt dethroned. The phenomenon has left the West struggling to formulate a new direction for a region that sits on vast reserves of oil. Brent crude futures for April delivery fell $1.94 to $113.10 a barrel by 1737 GMT, after rising sharply on Monday.

Libyan oil trade has virtually been paralysed as banks decline to clear payments in dollars due to U.S. sanctions, trading sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

(Additional reporting by Michael Georgy in Tripoli, Alexander Dziadosz in Ajdabiya, Mohammed Abbas in Ras Lanuf, Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers and Stefano Ambrogi in London; Writing by Andrew Roche: Editing by Diana Abdallah)

East Libyans burn Gaddafi book, demand constitution, Posted by Meosha Eaton

* Green Book outlines Gaddafi's political, economic ideas
* Protesters demand Libya adopt proper constitution

By Alexander Dziadosz

BENGHAZI, Libya, March 2 (Reuters) - Several hundred protesters burned copies of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's "Green Book" in the eastern city of Benghazi on Wednesday, an act of contempt unthinkable just three weeks ago.

The overthrow of Gaddafi's 41-year rule in much of the country's east last month has allowed many Libyans to lash out for the first time at what they see as an absurd and oppressive personality cult.

Protesters chanted, waved signs and danced as they tossed copies of the book, which outlines the ideas behind Gaddafi's "Third Universal Theory," onto a large fire, sending thick plumes of smoke and ash into the air.

"House by house, alley by alley, oh Muammar, oh you donkey," demonstrators chanted, ridiculing Gaddafi's pledge to cleanse the country "house by house".

Many demonstrators carried signs demanding Libya adopt a proper constitution. Others called for an end to "military rule" and to Gaddafi's "monopoly on authority".

Gaddafi's theory seeks to chart a course between Islamic doctrine and socialism. It outlines loose political and economic guidelines for running Libya, which has no formal constitution.

In the distance, the skeleton of a centre devoted to studying the Green Book stood charred and abandoned. Demonstrators scaled its pointed roof, waving pre-Gaddafi, monarchy-era flags that have come to represent the uprising.

"We hate this book because it is useless," said Moataz Hadad, 25, a medical intern. He added that, like all Libyan students, he was forced to study the book but ridiculed its content.

"'The man is male and the woman is female'. That is a quotation from this book," he said derisively.

Hadad and other students at the protest said endless study meant they could spout chunks from memory.

"For 42 years we have been listening to that crazy man and what he thinks, every day. So we've learned by heart how and what he thinks," he said.

Gaddafi seized control of Libya in a bloodless coup d'etat in September, 1969.
Khaled Ismail, 28, a jobless law graduate, said the Green Book needed to be scrapped because it allowed Gaddafi and his government to act with impunity.

As evidence, he displayed scars on his torso that he said he sustained from bullets fired during a 2006 protest outside the Italian embassy in Benghazi, the memory of which has helped fuel the city's uprising against Gaddafi's rule.

"The book does not include the rights of citizens, it does not include the state's obligations. It does not include the separation of powers and it does not include a constitution," Ismail said. (Editing by Jon Hemming)