Ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gadafy has called on the UN Security Council to protect his hometown of Sirte - still held by forces loyal to him - from what he called Nato "atrocities".
"If Sirte is isolated from the rest of the world in order for atrocities to be committed against it, then the world has a duty not to be absent and you have to take your international responsibility and intervene immediately to stop this crime," Col Gadafy was quoted as saying in a letter read out on Syrian-based Arrai TV.
The TV said the letter was addressed to the UN Security Council. Col Gadafy's whereabouts are not known but he has communicated through Arrai TV several times since he was overthrown on August.
His spokesman said in a telephone call to Reuters today the 69-year-old was still in Libya.
Meanwhile, Libya will begin exporting crude oil from the eastern port of Tobruk within ten days and could be producing 1 million barrels per day within six months, the chairman of the National Oil Corporation said this evening.
The country badly needs revenues from its main industry to fund reconstruction after a nearly seven-month war, with violent clashes continuing between interim leaders and forces loyal to Gadafy.
Benghazi-based oil firm Agoco confirmed on Monday that it had started pumping oil from its eastern Sarir field slightly ahead of a planned start date tomorrow.
"We should have enough oil for a 1-million-barrel shipment from Tobruk in eight to ten days," Nouri Berouin said in an interview in Benghazi.
Earlier, fighters loyal to Libya's new rulers will resort to heavy weapons to capture a desert outpost held by Col Gadafy's forces if needed, a military commander said today, urging civilians to flee.
Daw Saleheen, who is heading regional forces battling for control of Bani Walid, said Gadafy loyalists had positioned rockets and mortar launchers on civilian houses in the town, 180km south of Tripoli.
Saleheen said his men would have to face about 1,200 pro-Gadafy fighters, including 200 snipers perched on rooftops.
"We know all their positions. We have sent a message to all civilians that if they can, they must leave now," he told reporters on the northern outskirts of Bani Walid, his home town.
Hundreds of residents have poured out of the town in the past three days in cars crammed with children and possessions. They say street battles and severe food and fuel shortages have made it impossible to stay.
Along with Sirte on the Mediterranean coast and Sabha, in the southern desert, Bani Walid is one of the last major pro-Gadafy strongholds in Libya.
Forces backed by the National Transitional Council (NTC), the country's interim rulers, have met stronger resistance in Bani Walid than expected. They had initially estimated pro-Gadafy forces in the low hundreds.
"If they use heavy weapons we will do the same," Saleheen said, declining to say when the fighting would start, saying only that civilians would have enough time to get out.
Saleheen knows how difficult it is to take control of Bani Walid's parched hills and valleys. He helped lead an uprising against Col Gadafy there in 1993 and spent the next 18 years in prison when it was crushed.
"This area is thinly populated but it is difficult terrain because of the mountains," said Saleheen, who was released on February 19th near the start of Libya's unrest.
The central, densely populated part of Bani Walid is proving difficult to capture, NTC fighters say. It is on higher ground, allowing pro-Gadafy forces to take aim from above.
Loyalist fighters were reported to have covered the road up to central Bani Walid with oil, impeding the NTC's advances.
Saleheen said about a quarter of the town's 100,000 residents had left but many are reported trapped in loyalist-controlled areas.
NTC forces have encircled the town and Saleheen said they were sure Col Gadafy's son Saif al-Islam was hiding there along with the ousted strongman's spokesman Moussa Ibrahim and domestic security official Tohami Khaled.
"We have eyes inside the city," he said.
Bani Walid's population, dominated by the Warfalla tribe, benefited from Gadafy's oil-fuelled largesse. Talks with tribal elders aimed at a peaceful settlement have repeatedly broken down.
"A number of people in Bani Walid are against the revolution because Gaddafi gave them money and cars and also benefits for unemployed young men," Saleheen said.
"The tribal leaders prefer not to fight and surrender ... but some were close to Gadafy so they are resisting."
Reuters