Gaddafi rebels look to Tripoli, peace plan mooted (Reuters)

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Gaddafi defiant as West flexes military muscle (Reuters)

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – U.S. warships will pass through the Suez Canal on Wednesday on their way to Libya as Western nations put more pressure on Muammar Gaddafi to stop a violent crackdown and step aside.

The United States said Libya could sink into civil war unless Gaddafi quits amid fears that the uprising, the bloodiest against long-serving rulers in the Middle East, could cause a humanitarian crisis.

Gaddafi remained defiant and his son, Saif al-Islam, warned the West against launching military action. He said the veteran ruler would not step down or go into exile.

Italy said it was sending a humanitarian mission to neighboring Tunisia to provide food and medical aid to as many as 10,000 people who had fled violence in Libya on its eastern border.

Tunisian border guards fired into the air on Tuesday to try to control a crowd of people clamoring to cross the frontier.

About 70,000 people have passed through the Ras Jdir border post in the past two weeks, and many more of the hundreds of thousands of foreign workers in Libya are expected to follow.

"Using force against Libya is not acceptable. There's no reason, but if they want ... we are ready, we are not afraid," Saif al-Islam told Sky television.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told U.S. lawmakers: "Libya could become a peaceful democracy or it could face protracted civil war." The United States said it was moving ships and planes closer to the oil-producing North African state.

The destroyer USS Barry moved through the Suez Canal on Monday and into the Mediterranean. Two amphibious assault ships, the USS Kearsarge, which can carry 2,000 Marines, and the USS Ponce, were in the Red Sea and are expected to go through the canal early on Wednesday.

U.S. RULES NOTHING OUT

The White House said the ships were being redeployed in preparation for possible humanitarian efforts but stressed it "was not taking any options off the table."

"We are looking at a lot of options and contingencies. No decisions have been made on any other actions," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe sounded a note of caution, saying military intervention would not happen without a clear United Nations mandate.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who said Britain would work with allies on preparations for a no-fly zone in Libya, said it was unacceptable that "Colonel Gaddafi can be murdering his own people using airplanes and helicopter gunships."

General James Mattis, commander of U.S. Central Command, told a Senate hearing that imposing a no-fly zone would be a "challenging" operation. "You would have to remove air defense capability in order to establish a no-fly zone, so no illusions here," he said. "It would be a military operation."

Analysts said Western leaders were in no mood to rush into the conflict after drawn-out involvements in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Gaddafi, a survivor of past coup attempts, told the U.S. ABC network and the BBC on Monday: "All my people love me," dismissing the significance of a rebellion that has ended his control over much of oil-rich eastern Libya.

REBELS SAY STRENGTH GROWING

Rebel fighters said the balance of the conflict was swinging their way. "Our strength is growing and we are getting more weapons. We are attacking checkpoints," said Yousef Shagan, a spokesman in Zawiyah, 50 km (30 miles) from Tripoli.

A rebel army officer in the eastern city of Ajdabiyah said rebel units were becoming more organized.

"All the military councils of Free Libya are meeting to form a unified military council to plan an attack on Gaddafi security units, militias and mercenaries," Captain Faris Zwei said. He said there were more than 10,000 volunteers in the city, plus defecting soldiers.

The New York Times reported that the rebels' revolutionary council was debating whether to ask for Western air strikes on some of Gaddafi's military assets under a United Nations banner.

The Times said Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga, the council's spokesman, declined to comment on its deliberations but said: "If it is with the United Nations, it is not a foreign intervention," which the rebels have said they oppose.

The Times said there was no indication the U.N. Security Council would approve such a request, or that Libyans seeking to oust Gaddafi would welcome it.

Despite the widespread collapse of Gaddafi's writ, his forces were fighting back in some regions. A reporter on the Tunisian border saw Libyan troops reassert control at a crossing abandoned on Monday, and residents of Nalut, about 60 km (35 miles) from the border, said they feared pro-Gaddafi forces were planning to recapture the town.

Mohamed, a resident of rebel-held Misrata, told Reuters by phone: "Symbols of Gaddafi's regime have been swept away from the city. Only a (pro-Gaddafi) battalion remains at the city's air base but they appear to be willing to negotiate safe exit out of the air base. We are not sure if this is genuine or just a trick to attack the city again."

Across the country, tribal leaders, officials, military officers and army units have defected to the rebels.

Tripoli is a clear Gaddafi stronghold, but even in the capital, loyalties are divided. Many on the streets on Tuesday expressed loyalty, but a man who described himself as a military pilot said: "One hundred percent of Libyans don't like him."

The U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday unanimously suspended Libya's membership of the U.N. Human Rights Council. A U.N. Security Council resolution on Saturday called for a freeze on Gaddafi's assets and a travel ban and refers his crackdown to the International Criminal Court.

The United States has frozen $30 billion in Libyan assets.

Libya's National Oil Corp said output had halved because of the departure of foreign workers. Brent crude prices surged above $116 a barrel as supply disruptions and the potential for more unrest in the Middle East and North Africa kept investors on edge.

Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper, citing unnamed U.S. sources, said British special forces were preparing to seize mustard gas and other potential chemical weapons in Libya.

It quoted unnamed British sources as saying they had not yet received a specific U.S. request for involvement, but officials said plans were being drawn up for "every eventuality."

(Additional reporting by Yvonne Bell and Chris Helgren in Tripoli, Dina Zayed and Caroline Drees in Cairo, Tom Pfeiffer, Alexander Dziadosz and Mohammed Abbas in Benghazi, Yannis Behrakis and Douglas Hamilton; Christian Lowe and Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, Souhail Karam and Marie-Louise Gumuchian in Rabat and Samia Nakhoul, William Maclean and Alex Lawler in London; writing by Janet Lawrence; editing by Philip Barbara)

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Canada freezes C$2.3 billion in Gaddafi assets (Reuters)

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada has frozen C$2.3 billion ($2.4 billion) worth of assets belonging to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, a government official told Reuters on Tuesday.

The official did not give details.

Ottawa announced a clampdown on doing business with Libyan institutions on Sunday and later said it had blocked unspecified financial dealings the Libyan government had planned to carry out in Canada.

The United States, Austria and Britain have also frozen Gaddafi assets over the last few days.

($1=$0.97 Canadian)

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Rob Wilson)

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World powers struggle to find way to stop Gaddafi (Reuters)

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – World powers struggled to find a way to stop Libyan leader Muammer Gaddafi lashing out at his people as he clings to power in Tripoli, the last big city where an uprising against his rule has yet to take hold.

President Barack Obama signed an order prohibiting transactions related to Libya and blocking property, the first major step to isolate the North African leader, who has used army, police and irregular forces to try to crush the protests.

"By any measure, Muammar Gaddafi's government has violated international norms and common decency and must be held accountable," Obama said in a statement on Friday.

Diplomats at the United Nations said a vote on a draft resolution calling for an arms embargo on Libya as well as travel bans and asset freezes on its leaders might come on Saturday after U.N. chief Ban ki Moon said it could not wait.

Western powers, with whom Gaddafi has exploited Libya's oil after years of diplomatic isolation, have struggled to keep up with the pace of protests that have swept away Western-backed strongmen in neighboring Egypt and Tunisia already this year.

Tripoli's streets were eerily quiet overnight, with portraits of Gaddafi adorning street corners and a few police cars patrolling after a day in which residents said pro-Gaddafi forces fired at and over the heads of protesters in many areas. Up to 25 people were said to have been killed in one area alone.

"Peace is coming back to our country," one of Gaddafi's sons, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, told reporters flown into Libya under close supervision.

"If you hear fireworks don't mistake it for shooting," the 38-year-old London-educated younger Gaddafi said, smiling.

He acknowledged pro-Gaddafi forces had "a problem" with Misrata, Libya's third largest city, and Zawiya, also in the west, where protesters had beaten back counter-attacks by the military but said the army was prepared to negotiate.

"Hopefully there will be no more bloodshed. By tomorrow we will solve this," he said on Friday evening.

The country's second city Benghazi fell to the opposition along with much of eastern Libya earlier in the uprising, which began more than a week ago. Gaddafi vowed to "crush any enemy" on Friday, addressing a crowd of supporters in Tripoli's central Green Square. Residents said government forces had fired when protesters, who had gathered after Friday prayers around the capital, approached.

"They just started shooting people," Ali, a businessman who declined to give his full name, said by telephone. A female resident said her friend had seen police fire at people in another district and had told her 25 people were killed there.

AIRPORT CHAOS

At Tripoli's international airport, thousands of desperate migrant workers besieged the main gate trying to leave the country as police used batons and whips to keep them out.

International diplomats say some 2,000 or more people have been killed. The U.N. Security Council draft, drawn up by Britain and France, said the attacks on civilians in Libya may amount to crimes against humanity.

The White House did not express direct support for the proposal but said it was discussing it with members of the Security Council, including the other four permanent members -- China, Russia, Britain and France.

Charles Ries, director of the Center for Middle East Public Policy at Rand Corporation, said the U.N. resolution was risky.

"The U.N. Security Council is a very risky proposition if, for example, the Chinese were not in favor of voting a resolution, and I don't think the administration feels confident that it has all of those ducks lined up," Ries said.

Washington, which in recent years had a rapprochement with Gaddafi and has several energy companies in Libya still working while other foreign firms have curtailed or suspended operations, announced unilateral sanctions first.

"His legitimacy has been reduced to zero in the eyes of his people," said Obama's spokesman, who also refused to rule out military action.

Gaddafi's own people seemed close to forcing him from power, although it is hard to assess the relative strengths of forces that include irregular units, tribal loyalists and militias backing Gaddafi and regular army units who have now gone over to the opposition.

Other towns were reported by residents to have fallen to the opposition, although Gaddafi retained the defiance he has often displayed against the West over more than four decades.

"We can crush any enemy. We can crush it with the people's will," he urged the crowd of thousands, threatening to open military arsenals to his supporters and tribesmen.

Residents said parts of Tripoli, apparently the last major stronghold of the man who took over Libya as a young colonel in a 1969 military coup, were already beyond his control.

U.S. EMBASSY CLOSES

Washington, having evacuated Americans from Libya after days of difficulties, said it was closing down its embassy. Gaddafi, once branded a "mad dog" by the White House for backing global militants, had in recent years sought cooperation with the West.

Protesters in Zawiyah, an oil refining town on the main coastal highway 50 km (30 miles) west of Tripoli, fought off government forces on several nights, according to witnesses who fled across the Tunisian border at Ras Jdir.

"There are corpses everywhere ... It's a war in the true sense of the word," said Akila Jmaa, who crossed into Tunisia on Friday after traveling from the town.

Prosecutor-general Abdul-Rahman al-Abbar became the latest senior official to resign, telling al Arabiya television he was joining the opposition. Libya's delegations to the Arab League and the United Nations in Geneva also switched sides.

State television said the government was raising wages and food subsidies and ordering special allowances for all families, a late bid to enrol the support of Libya's 6 million citizens.

In the east, ad hoc committees of lawyers, doctors, tribal elders and soldiers appeared to be filling the vacuum left by Gaddafi's government with some success.

There was little sign of the radical Islamists whom Gaddafi has accused of fomenting the unrest.

Army and police in the eastern city of Adjabiya told Al Jazeera they had joined the opposition and a man back from the Western Mountains, some 150 km (90 miles) southwest of Tripoli, said three towns there had shrugged off central control.

Libya supplies 2 percent of the world's oil, the bulk of it from wells and supply terminals in the east. The opposition says it controls nearly all oilfields east of Ras Lanuf.

Industry sources told Reuters that crude oil shipments from Libya, the world's 12th-largest exporter, had all but stopped because of reduced production, a lack of staff at ports and security concerns.

Benchmark Brent oil futures were steady at around $112, after a Saudi assurance that it would replace any shortfall in Libyan output brought prices back from Thursday's peak of nearly $120.

(Additional reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian in Rabat, Dina Zayed and Caroline Drees in Cairo, Jeff Mason, Patricia Zengerle, Alister Bull, Andrew Quinn, Paul Eckert, David Morgan and David Lawder in Washington and Luke Baker in Brussels; writing by Philippa Fletcher; editing by Ralph Gowling)

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Libya's War of the Colonels: Col. Gaddafi Meet Col. Hussein (Time.com)

At a former Army Air Defense base in a darkened, partially constructed neighborhood of Benghazi, Colonel Tarek Saad Hussein is readying the revolutionary forces for the ultimate battle. Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi will likely fight to the death in order to keep control of his capital Tripoli, according to soldiers and revolutionary activists alike. But the banners in front of Benghazi's High Court read: "Libya, one body. Tripoli, our heart." The east is now under opposition control, but Libya will not split, they say: the revolution is not over until Tripoli is won and a dictator is toppled.

The liberation of Tripoli has become the battle cry in Benghazi, Libya's second largest city. "We will never abandon Tripoli," shouted the Imam who led Friday's open-air noon prayer. In response, a chorus of "God is Great!" rose from the thousands who had gathered beneath the stormy Mediterranean skies to pray. (See Yuri Kozyrev's photographs from the liberated city of Benghazi.)

For Colonel Hussein, who sits in a stark office within a darkened base equipped with anti-aircraft guns, Libya's revolution is still very much a people's revolution. But the military that has defected to the opposition - more than 10,000 troops from Benghazi to the Egyptian border, he says - now have an important task at hand. "We are trying to collect as many as we can from Benghazi and other towns in order to prepare a force to march on Tripoli," he says.

Hussein is coordinating with other military officers, tribal sheikhs, and volunteers across the region, he says, to launch the final battle that many believe may be necessary to topple the 41-year-old dictatorship. Already, Hussein says 2,000 armed volunteers, soldiers and reservists have reached the capital in small groups, the last group arriving on Friday night. Soon, he says, there will be more.

But it's not a military coup, he cautions. "It's a youth uprising," he insists. "The fight is between the young people and the regime." It wasn't until Gaddafi met their peaceful demonstrations with violent force "killing them in cold blood," that it was time to intervene, he says. "They are the ones who started the revolution and we are completing it." (See an account of the mayhem in Gaddafi's Tripoli.)

And inevitably, the military will have a big role to play in the aftermath of Gaddafi's fall. "We hope to have a democratic state, not a military state," Hussein says. "We are fed up with a military state. The military is only for protecting the nation - not for ruling it."

But to get there, the revolutionary forces will most certainly have to capture the capital, which means getting past the Gaddafi stronghold of Sert, and past the superior weaponry of Gaddafi's loyalist forces and mercenaries in Tripoli itself. In recent days, Hussein has been placing calls to military officers and residents in Sert, which stands in between Benghazi and Tripoli. "We don't want to treat them as they were treated before," he says, meaning inhumanely. "And we don't want to behave like killers. So we made an appeal, as a warning, to allow us to move freely toward Tripoli."

In the past week, the eastern revolutionaries say, Gaddafi has been losing control of his country, one piece at a time. His forces, diplomats, ministers, and bureaucrats have fallen away. There is unity among the rebels, he says, as well as increasing determination to reach the end game. "We are preparing ourselves, and we will march to Tripoli to bombard Bab Bin Gashin," Hussein says, referring to Gaddafi's Tripoli stronghold where he believes the ruler is hiding. "We have planes and pilots who were assigned by Gaddafi to bomb Benghazi, but who refused and landed here safely. We have pilots who are ready to crash their planes in a suicidal way if necessary." (Will Gaddafi fall or fight back?)

Is the ultimate plan to kill Gaddafi, as many eager revolutionaries along the Mediterranean coast say? Hussein peers up over his rectangular reading glasses and offers a wry smile: "We hope to catch him alive."

On Friday evening, Gaddafi delivered another defiant speech before a crowd of supporters in Tripoli. He vowed to "open up the arsenals" and to defeat his opposition. But Hussein didn't have time to see it because he was too busy planning the days ahead. "This isn't a football match," he says. And he's not afraid of the man in Tripoli.

No one expects Gaddafi to go quietly. His remaining forces are well-equipped, and his son Khamees' battalion includes an estimated 3,000 troops, about half of whom are mercenaries, Hussein says. On Thursday, Libya's now ex-Justice Minister Mustafa Mohamed Abd el-Jalil told al-Jazeera that he believes Gaddafi has chemical and nuclear weapons. Hussein isn't worried. "There are no nuclear weapons," he says dismissively. And Gaddafi's once fearsome stock of chemical weapons? "All that stuff was handed over during the Lockerbie deal," says Hussein, referring to the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 over the Scottish town and the controversial 2009 decision to repatriate a Libyan sentenced for the crime from a prison in Scotland. "He thought that by buying American support at the time, they would let him stay in power forever."

Hussein chuckles. "He forgot about the Libyan people."

See TIME's Top 10 Everything of 2010.

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Liberated from Gaddafi, Eastern Libya Looks to the Future (Time.com)

Tobruk is about an hour and a half from Libya's border with Egypt, a drive through flat, sparsely populated scrubland along the Mediteranean coast. The communities along the route are scattered and sparsely populated in low, rectangular block buildings, many painted a decaying, sand-battered white with green doors and shutters. As darkness settles over Libya on Tuesday, the towns almost disappear into pitch black darkness, with electricity limited, despite many power lines. Sporadic lakes of sewage break up fields of garbage. "You see how Libyans are living here," says my guide, Emat al-Maijri, an activist, pointing to the buildings. "And with all this oil!"

But the men of Tobruk are proud to have been among the first to push Gaddafi's regime out of their city. There were only three or four fatalities here, with about 50 injured, residents say. That's because Tobruk, in Libya's far east, fell fast. It was part of the domino collapse of Libya's eastern towns - the first to fall to the anti-government protesters. "All of Libya is against Qaddafi," says Gamal Shallouf, a marine biologist turned activist here in Tobruk. But he says the east was the first to fall because it has long felt neglected by a ruler who focused development projects on the capital and his home town of Sert. People here also feel a closeness to Benghazi, Libya's second largest city and the site of past uprisings in the country's history. "Maybe because Benghazi started it and so we supported Benghazi. After just two days, every town was burning. Gaddafi never cared about eastern Libya. He doesn't care about Libya at all, just his own city, Sert." (See "The Rule of Libya's Colonel Gaddafi")

Tawfik al-Shohiby, a chemical engineering professor at the University of Tobrouk says Benghazi lies at the uprising's epicenter because it was the site of regime brutality in 2006. Feb. 17 was the date of protest announced on Facebook, he says. But they chose the date for a reason. "You know this date in 2006 - 14 people were killed outside the Italian consulate in Benghazi. They were out protesting against the cartoons of [the Prophet] Muhammad. They were protesting and the police killed them. The first one who died was a child." He adds, "This was our first opportunity to say 'No' to a dictator."

But what are Libyans going to do if and when they rid themselves of Gaddafi? For one, the activists in Tobruk feel a lot more fighting has yet to take place. Sert, parts of Tripoli, and the south are believed to be under Gaddafi loyalist control still; and there are still reports of intense fighting between hired mercenaries and residents. There are reports of labor strikes on oil fields in Misla and Nafoora. But people on the border and in Tobruk say confidence is rising in the east of the country where the country is under control of "the people." (See TIME's Exclusive Photos: Turmoil in Egypt)

But are the people really united? In their speeches, both Muammar Gaddafi and his son (and assumed heir) Saif warned that Libya's tribalism would tear the country apart without their dynasty's firm rule. "Libya is not Egypt or Tunisia," the son warned again and again on Sunday night. But the residents of Tobruk say the Gaddafis created the tribalism. Says Shallouf the marine biologist: "Gaddafi made the tribes here. He made it tribal. After Gaddafi brought down our king, he established governance at the tribal level. He thought it was a good idea. But it was a devilish idea. He created tribal governments. He supported some not others. But we didn't feel this was right. We now feel we have only one family - the Libyan family."

Still, even the activiss wanted only so much change. Libya, they explan, is more traditional than its neighbors Tunisia and Egypt. They say they want to see a new government that preserves Libyan culture; they don't want democracy imported from elsewhere. Shaiby says: "I have one soul. I will give it for this revolution. Not just for money. But for freedom. We want freedom, but democracy that fits with our culture. Not just any democracy. One that respects our religion. Libya is 100% Muslim and Sunni, and 100% original Libyan. So we need to make our own democracy. We need support from outside - the US and U.K. - but not to tell us what to do. We just want advice."

Shallouf wants to see a government that gives back to its people. Many others echo the complaint that the people don't see enough of Libya's oil revenues. "We have so much money but our government makes business in Africa for Gaddafi and his sons only," says Shallouf. "I am the manager of a marine biology research center. Do you know how much the government gives me a month? Only $300. I have just one child, a girl. If I had another, I don't know what I would do." (Egypt's Uprising: Complete Coverage)

Shallouf complains that European and U.S. companies have their hands too deep in Libya's oil. "OK," he says, "we respect all deals, but I think the money from the oil should be for us and the oil should be for us. It should go toward development. Libya needs human development. Gaddafi broke [the] sciences here, and health. And he broke the police. They made us hopeless. So that we need all kinds of development."

Shaiby doesn't think that the current crisis will devastate Libya's oil economy as the Gaddafis have threatened. "Every company and country wants to work in Libya," he says. "After Gaddafi is down and the situation is better, it will be better than good." Shallouf agrees, "We trust that foreign people in all countries hate Gaddafi and don't trust him because he's crazy and has made many troubles in the world with our money."

(See TIME's photogallery "Mass Demonstrations in Egypt.")

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Gaddafi defiant in face of mounting revolt (Reuters)

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi vowed defiance in the face of a mounting revolt against his 41-year rule on Tuesday, making a fleeting television appearance to scorn protesters and deny he had fled the country.

Gaddafi's forces have cracked down fiercely on demonstrators, with fighting now spreading to the capital Tripoli after erupting in Libya's oil-producing east last week. Human Rights Watch says at least 233 people have been killed.

As the fighting has intensified across the thinly populated nation stretching from the Mediterranean deep into the Sahara desert, cracks appeared among Gaddafi supporters, with some ambassadors resigning and calling for his removal.

The justice minister quit in protest at the use of force and a group of army officers called on soldiers to "join the people," while two pilots flew their warplanes to nearby Malta.

Tripoli, a Mediterranean coastal city, appeared calm in the early hours of Tuesday. One resident said: "There is heavy rain at the moment, so people are at home. I am in the east of the city and have not heard clashes."

Gaddafi appeared on television after days of seclusion to scoff at 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," Gaddafi said, holding an umbrella and leaning out of a van apparently outside his residence in what amounted to a 22-second appearance.

"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 Gaddafi, who has ruled Libya with a mixture of populism and tight control since taking power in a military coup in 1969.

DEMONSTRATIONS SPREAD, OIL PRICE RISES

World powers have condemned the use of force against protesters, with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon accusing Libya of firing on civilians from warplanes and helicopters.

"This must stop immediately," said Ban, adding he had spoken to Gaddafi and urged him to halt attacks on protesters. The Security Council was to hold a meeting on Libya at 9 a.m. EST (1400 GMT), diplomats said.

"The fall of Gaddafi is the imperative of the people in streets," said Ali al-Essawi, Libya's ambassador to India after resigning his post. He told Reuters that African mercenaries had been recruited to help put down protests.

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

Residents on Monday reported gunfire in parts of Tripoli and one political activist said warplanes had bombed the city. Residents said anxious shoppers were queuing outside stores to try to stock up on food and drink. Some shops were closed.

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.

Egypt's military rulers -- who took power following the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak on February11 -- reinforced the frontier but kept the main crossing open round-the-clock to allow the sick and wounded to enter, a military source said.

The revolt in OPEC member Libya has driven oil prices sharply higher, U.S. crude futures rising close to 8 percent to more than $94 a barrel, a 2-1/2 year high.

Shell said it was pulling out its expatriate staff from Libya temporarily because of the unrest.

International Energy Agency (IEA) chief economist Fatih Birol said oil prices could rise higher if turmoil persisted in the Middle East.

WORLD CONDEMNATION

The upheavals 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.

While Human Rights Watch said at least 233 people had been killed in five days of violence in Libya, opposition groups put the figure much higher. No independent verification was available and communications from outside were difficult.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it was "time to stop this unacceptable bloodshed" and EU foreign ministers also condemned the killing of protesters.

A flamboyant figure with his flowing robes and bevy of female bodyguards, Gaddafi has long been accused by the West of links to terrorism and revolutionary movements.

U.S. President Ronald Reagan once called him a "mad dog" and sent planes to bomb Libya in 1986 and he was particularly reviled after the 1988 Pan Am airliner bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, by Libyan agents in which 270 people were killed.

But this changed when Libya gave up its weapons of mass destruction in order to secure an end its international isolation and a rapprochement with western governments keen to tap its oil wealth and other lucrative trade and investment deals.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara, Christian Lowe, Tarek Amara, Marie-Louise Gumuchian, Souhail Karam; Brian Love, Daren Butler; Writing by Jon Boyle; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

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Gaddafi son warns of civil war as turmoil spreads (Reuters)

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libya's Muammar Gaddafi will fight a popular revolt to "the last man standing," one of his sons said on Monday, after protests broke out in the capital for the first time following days of unrest in the city of Benghazi.
Anti-government protesters rallied in Tripoli's streets, tribal leaders spoke out against Gaddafi, and army units defected to the opposition as oil exporter Libya endured one of the bloodiest revolts to convulse the Arab world.
Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi appeared on national television in an attempt both to threaten and calm people, saying the army would enforce security at any price.
"Our spirits are high and the leader Muammar Gaddafi is leading the battle in Tripoli, and we are behind him as is the Libyan army," he said.
"We will keep fighting until the last man standing, even to the last woman standing ... We will not leave Libya to the Italians or the Turks.
Wagging a finger at the camera, he blamed Libyan exiles for fomenting the violence. But he also promised dialogue on reforms and wage rises.
The cajoling may not be enough to douse the anger unleashed after four decades of rule by Gaddafi -- mirroring events in Egypt where a popular revolt overthrew the seemingly impregnable President Hosni Mubarak 10 days ago.
"People here in Benghazi are laughing at what he is saying, it is the same old story (on promised reform) and nobody believes what he says," a lawyer in Benghazi told the BBC after watching the speech.
"He is liar, liar, 42 years we have heard these lies."
The United States said it was weighing "all appropriate actions" in response to the unrest.
"We are analyzing the speech ... to see what possibilities it contains for meaningful reform," a U.S. official said.
Libya's ambassador to India told the BBC he was resigning in protest at the violent crackdown that has killed more than 200. Ali al-Essawi also accused the government of deploying foreign mercenaries against the protesters.
In the coastal city of Benghazi, protesters appeared to be largely in control after forcing troops and police to retreat to a compound. Government buildings were set ablaze and ransacked.
"Security now it is by the people" the lawyer said.
In the first sign of serious unrest in the capital, thousands of protesters clashed with Gaddafi supporters. Gunfire rang out in the night and police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators, some of whom threw stones at Gaddafi billboards.
South Korea said hundreds of Libyans, some armed with knives and guns, attacked a South Korean-run construction site in Tripoli, injuring at least 4 foreign workers.
Human Rights Watch said at least 223 people have been killed in five days of violence. Most were in Benghazi, cradle of the uprising and a region where Gaddafi's grip has always been weaker than elsewhere in the oil-rich desert nation.
Habib al-Obaidi, a surgeon at the Al-Jalae hospital, said the bodies of 50 people, most of them shot, were brought there on Sunday afternoon. Two hundred wounded had arrived, he said.
"One of the victims was obliterated after being hit by an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) to the abdomen," he said.
Members of an army unit known as the "Thunderbolt" squad had brought wounded comrades to the hospital, he said. The soldiers said they had defected to the cause of the protesters and had fought and defeated Gaddafi's elite guards.
"They are now saying that they have overpowered the Praetorian Guard and that they have joined the people's revolt," another man at the hospital, lawyer Mohamed al-Mana, told Reuters by telephone.
BENGHAZI THE CRADLE
If Gaddafi had hoped to dismiss Benghazi as a provincial problem, he faced an alarming development on Sunday night as crowds took to the streets of Tripoli.
One resident told Reuters he could hear gunshots and crowds.
"We're inside the house and the lights are out. That's what I hear, gunshots and people. I can't go outside," he said.
An expatriate worker said anti-government demonstrators were gathering in residential complexes.
"The police are dispersing them. I can also see burning cars," he said.
Support for Gaddafi, the son of a herdsman who seized power in 1969, among Libya's desert tribes was also waning.
The leader of the eastern Al-Zuwayya tribe threatened to cut oil exports unless authorities halted what he called the "oppression of protesters."
Speaking to Al Jazeera television, Shaikh Faraj al Zuway said: "We will stop oil exports to Western countries within 24 hours" if the violence did not stop.
Libya is Africa's fourth biggest oil exporter. It produces 1.6 million barrels of oil a day of which 1.1 million barrels are exported, according to Libyan data.
Oil jumped by more than $1 a barrel to $103.5 a barrel on fears the unrest could disrupt supplies.
Akram Al-Warfalli, a leading figure in the Al Warfalla tribe, one of Libya's biggest, told Al Jazeera: "We tell the brother (Gaddafi), well he's no longer a brother, we tell him to leave the country."
The Libyan uprising is one of series of revolts that have raced like wildfire across the Arab world since December, toppling the long-time rulers of Tunisia and Egypt and threatening entrenched dynasties from Bahrain to Yemen.
The West has watched with alarm as long-time allies and old foes have come under threat, appealing for reform and urging restraint.
REVILED AND REVERED
Gaddafi has been one of the most recognizable figures on the world stage in recent history, reviled by the West for many years as a supporter of militants and revolutionary movements while at the same time cutting a showmanlike figure with his flowing robes, lofty pronouncements and bevy of glamorous female assistants attending him in his Bedouin tent.
Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan once called him "the Mad Dog of the Middle East" and in 1986 unleashed air raids against Tripoli in response to the bombing of a Berlin disco frequented by U.S. servicemen, an attack the United States blamed on Libya.
The 1988 destruction of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, by Libyan agents in which 270 people were killed brought him fresh notoriety and led to U.N. sanctions.
But recent years have seen a rapprochement with the West as countries such as Britain and Italy sought a slice of its oil wealth and other lucrative commercial deals.
Though portrayed overseas as a ruthless despot, Gaddafi has enjoyed some popular support at home. After toppling King Idriss in 1969, he forged a middle road between communism and capitalism and oversaw rapid development of the poor country.
While using ruthless tactics against dissidents, he also spent billions of oil dollars to improve living standards.
(Reporting by Tarek Amara and Christian Lowe; Writing by Angus MacSwan; Editing by Matthew Jones and Robert Birsel)
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