Muammar Gaddafi

Libya's new masters have offered a million-dollar bounty for the fugitive Muammar Gaddafi, after he urged his men to fight on in battles across the capital.

The son and heir apparent of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Seif al-Islam, has resurfaced free and defiant a day after rebels claimed to have captured him, boasting in a bizarre reappearance that his father's loyalists still control parts of Tripoli and would crush the rebellion.

Britain has officially recognized Libya's main opposition group as the country's legitimate government, and has expelled all diplomats from Muammar Gaddafi's regime.

For three days running, the rallies have been carnival-like affairs with bands, horseback riders and even a camel dyed green.

France's foreign minister says Paris has had contact with emissaries from Muammar Gaddafi who say the embattled Libyan strongman is "prepared to leave" power.

A defiant Muammar Gaddafi has threatened to carry out attacks in Europe against "homes, offices, families," unless NATO halts its campaign of airstrikes against his regime in Libya.

Thousands of jubilant Libyans danced and cheered in the streets of the rebel stronghold of Benghazi after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Muammar Gaddafi, accusing him of crimes against humanity for killing civilians who rose up against his rule.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, increasingly cornered under a stunning upturn in NATO airstrikes, has lashed back with renewed shelling of the western city of Misrata, killing 10 rebel fighters.

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

Muammar Gaddafi is ready for a truce to stop the fighting in his country, visiting South African president Jacob Zuma said after meeting the Libyan ruler, but he listed familiar Gaddafi conditions that have scuttled previous cease-fire efforts.

NATO warplanes have bombarded targets in Tripoli with more than 20 airstrikes, striking around Muammar Gaddafi's residential compound in what appeared to be the heaviest night of bombing of the Libyan capital since the Western alliance launched its air campaign against his forces.

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor has sought arrest warrants for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, his son and the country's intelligence chief for authorising the killing of civilians in a crackdown on anti-government rebels.

Pressure is mounting on Muammar Gaddafi from within his stronghold in the Libyan capital, with increasing NATO airstrikes and worsening shortages of fuel and goods.

Pressing to break a two-month siege, rebels in the port city of Misrata said they had captured the local airport and pushed Muammar Gaddafi's forces ever further from the city's western outskirts.

Vandals attacked the Italian and British embassies in the Libyan capital on Sunday, hours after officials said Muammar Gaddafi escaped a Nato missile strike that killed one of his sons and three young grandchildren. The unrest prompted the United Nations to pull its international staff out of Tripoli.

Europe has moved closer to doing what it said it wouldn't do in Libya - directly jump into the bid to overthrow leader Muammar Gaddafi.