Libyan rebels battle to keep key city

Libyan government soldiers and rebel gunmen battled in the streets of a key front-line city today.

The clashes came after government troops used shelling and guerrilla-style tactics to open their most serious push into opposition territory since international air strikes began.

At least eight people were killed, a hospital official said.

Recapturing Ajdabiya would give the Libyan military a staging ground to attack the rebels' main stronghold, Benghazi, about 100 miles (160 kilometres) farther east along the coastal highway.

Muammar Gaddafi's forces were approaching Benghazi when they were driven back by the international air campaign launched last month to protect civilians and ground Gaddafi's aircraft.

For the rebels, losing the city would effectively bottle them into a coastal strip of eastern Libya and allow government forces to more tightly squeeze the few opposition pockets in the rest of the country, including the besieged western port of Misrata, where heavy clashes continued for a second day.

The push into Ajdabiya was launched even as international envoys opened fresh initiatives for a peace deal.

The African Union said it planned to send a team to Libya on Sunday to begin meetings with the government and rebel leaders.

In the capital Tripoli, meanwhile, Gaddafi made his first public appearance in weeks with a visit to a school. Children jumped on desks and gave fist-pumping chants: "The people want Muammar the leader!"

Wearing large black sunglasses and a brown turban and robe, Gaddafi made no public comments, according to the account on state TV. He has remained mostly in hiding since the air strikes began, preferring to communicate by telephone to government-run television.

The battle for Ajdabiya showed how Gaddafi's forces are adapting their strategies amid Nato air strikes seeking to cripple the Libyan military.

Small and mobile units - less vulnerable to air strikes than tanks and other armour - first ambushed a rebel convoy probing the lines outside the city.

Government gunners then began shelling Ajdabiya from desert positions and later ferried soldiers into the streets using civilian vehicles in attempts to foil Nato pilots.

A possible Nato air strike, kicking up a huge mushroom cloud, temporarily halted the shelling. Nato officials did not immediately confirm the attack.

A helicopter gunship - possibly a rebel aircraft coming from the direction of Benghazi - passed over the city during the fighting.

By nightfall, heavy gunfire was heard from apparent block-to-block combat inside the city, which had about 150,000 residents before many fled for safer areas.

A resident leaving the city, Abdul Fatah, said gun battles raged along the city's main street. A rebel fighter, Salah Ali, said Gaddafi's forces were "spreading out inside Ajdabiya" with weapons including heavy machine guns and grenade launchers.

The supervisor at Ajdabiya hospital, Mohammed Idris, said at least eight rebels were killed and nine people were injured, including two civilians.

The rebels have maintained control of much of the eastern half of Libya since early in the uprising, while Gaddafi has clung to much of the west.

Gaddafi has been putting out feelers for a ceasefire but he refuses to step down as rebels demand.

The Nato-led airstrikes, authorised by a UN resolution, have neutralised Gaddafi's air force and pummelled his ground forces, but the opposition remains outnumbered and outgunned.

The alliance has been defending itself against rebel complaints that its attacks are too slow and imprecise.

The British military said its warplanes hit seven tanks around Ajdabiya and Misrata in western Libya on Friday as part of the Nato-led mission.

In Misrata, rebels and government troops have battled since Friday for control of a key roadway linking the port - a lifeline for opposition fighters and trapped civilians.

A doctor who spoke by phone said at least seven people had been killed.

The accounts could not be independently verified because Libyan authorities have blocked journalists from conducting their own reporting in the city.

For a second consecutive day, international journalists were taken on a government-supervised trip to the outskirts of Misrata.

In a farming area south of the city, pro-Gaddafi forces manned positions with pickup trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns. Tents and sniper nests were hidden in trees and brush.

Also in Misrata, the Red Cross said a relief ship reached the port.

A Turkish ship also docked in Misrata to bring home Egyptians stranded in Libya's third-largest city, said Egypt's deputy foreign minister, Mohammed Abdel-Hakam. A second Turkish ship was expected on Sunday.