Nato airstrikes have targeted Muammar Gaddafi’s sprawling Tripoli compound in a new round of daylight raids.

Muammar Gaddafi stood defiant yesterday in the face of the heaviest and most punishing Nato airstrikes yet – at least 40 daylight attacks that sent plumes of smoke billowing above the Libyan leader’s central Tripoli compound.

Muammar Gaddafi has called Nato to decalre a ceasefire in Libya, in a rambling speech which lasted more than an hour and was broadcast on television.