Delegates from nearly 40 countries seeking an end to the Libyan conflict met in Istanbul today to discuss more financial aid and diplomatic support to the country’s main opposition group as the rebels struggle to defeat Col Muammar Gaddafi’s forces.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is facing dramatic shortages of fuel for his soldiers and citizens in Tripoli, and he is running out of cash to pay his forces and what is left of his government, according to the latest US intelligence reports.

MOURNERS called for revenge as some 2,000 people in the Libyan capital greeted a funeral procession carrying Muammar Gaddafi’s son, who was killed in a NATO airstrike.

Nato powers rejected Muammar Gaddafi’s call for a ceasefire and negotiations today, saying they need “actions not words,” and aid ships were prevented from docking in a besieged coastal city while the alliance swept the port for mines.

THE western Libyan city of Misrata came under heavy bombardment yesterday by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, a rebel spokesman said, a day after rebels celebrated a government pullback.

Heavy fighting raged anew in Misrata and killed 24 people as Muammar Gaddafi’s forces gave up more ground inside Libya’s third-largest city.

THE conflict in Libya is heading for a “stalemate” as Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s troops press on with their siege of the rebel-held Misrata, despite recent air strikes on Libyan forces, according to the top US military officer.

A Libyan rebel leader claims that opposition forces have taken control of a post on the Tunisian border near a former rebel-held town.

THE UN has sent food for 50,000 people to west Libya as aid groups scrambled to reach trapped civilians and rebels put the death toll from two months of fighting at 10,000.

The British government will help 5,000 people escape the besieged rebel-held town of Misrata and provide vital medical supplies to those caught up in violence across western Libya, Britain's International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell announced today.

AN African plan to halt Libya’s civil war quickly foundered when fighting raged for the besieged city of Misrata and NATO refused to suspend its air campaign.

A Nato air strike intended to thwart Muammar Gaddafi’s forces killed 13 rebel fighters in eastern Libya, the opposition said.

A Nato air strike intended to thwart Muammar Gaddafi’s forces killed 13 rebel fighters in eastern Libya instead, the opposition said today.

Government forces killed six civilians in the city of Misrata today in an unrelenting campaign of shelling and sniper fire aimed at driving rebels from the main city they hold in western Libya, medical officials said.

Libyan government troops attacked a town west of Tripoli today expanding the campaign to clear rebels from the western front around the capital.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's children flaunted their wealth plundered from the country and behaved like mini-tyrants, according to secret US diplomatic memos.