Libyan forces push rebels back

Libyan government forces have unleashed a withering bombardment on rebels outside a key oil town, pushing them back even as the regime said Muammar Gaddafi might consider some reforms but would not step down.

Libyan government forces have unleashed a withering bombardment on rebels outside a key oil town today, pushing them back even as the regime said Muammar Gaddafi might consider some reforms but would not step down.

The rebels managed to take part of the town of Brega on Monday, aided by an international air campaign that has pounded Gaddafi's heavy weapons, but the rocket and artillery salvos unleashed on the rebels indicated the government's offensive capabilities remain.

Rebel attempts to fire rockets and mortars against the government forces were met with aggressive counter bombardments that sent many of the rebel forces scrambling back all the way to the town of Ajdabiya, dozens of miles away.

There did not appear to be any immediate response from the international aircraft patrolling the skies that have aided the rebels in the past.

Earlier today, there was an air strike against a convoy of eight government vehicles advancing towards rebel positions, rebel officer Abdel-Bast Abibi said, citing surveillance teams.

The strike hit two of the vehicles, prompting the others to turn around and race back into the city.

Rebel forces have been helped by the arrival on the front of more trained soldiers and heavier weapons, but they are still struggling to match the more experienced and better equipped government troops, even with the aid of air strikes.

Nato said today that its aerial onslaught on Gaddafi's forces has so far destroyed 30% of the Libyan strongman's military weapons.

Brigadier General Mark Van Uhm said that Nato planes had conducted 14 attacks on ground targets on Monday, destroying radar, munitions dumps, armoured vehicles and a rocket launcher.

Nato planes have flown more than 850 sorties in the six days since the alliance took command of all operations from a US-led international force that had been bombing Libya since March 19.

United States combat aircraft ended their role on Monday, but US forces continue to provide support, including aerial surveillance, reconnaissance, and aerial refuelling to Nato allies.

The Libyan government has softened its public stance against any compromise that would end the fighting, but government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said that any changes must be led by Gaddafi, who has ruled the country for more than four decades.

"We could have any political system, any changes - constitution, election, anything - but the leader has to lead this forward," he said in Tripoli.

"Don't decide our future from abroad, give us a proposal for change from within," Mr Ibrahim said, chastising Western powers who have a "personal problem with the leader" and economic interests they believe would be better served if Gaddafi's government collapsed.

The comments were unlikely to appease the rebels fighting to oust the Libyan leader.

Any long-term settlement poses tough questions about the fate of Gaddafi's family and the new leader of a post-Gaddafi nation, and the opposition has rejected any solution that would involved one of his sons taking power.

The head of the African Union, meanwhile, voiced his support for Gaddafi, calling for an end to foreign interference into what he called an internal Libyan problem.

Teodoro Obiang Nguema, 69-year-old president of Equatorial Guinea, described Western military efforts to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya as a "so-called humanitarian intervention".