Rebels pushed forces loyal to Muammar Gadafy out of much of the oil town of Brega and to the outskirts today in a slow advance west, but were still facing bombardment with each step.
Elsewhere, underlining the plight of civilians in western Libya, a Turkish ship that sailed into the besieged city of Misrata to rescue some 250 wounded had to leave in a hurry after crowds pressed forward on the dockside hoping to escape.
"It's a very hard situation . . . we had to leave early," said Turkish consular official Ali Akin after the ship stopped to pick up more wounded in the eastern rebel stronghold Benghazi.
Turkey's foreign minister ordered the ship into Misrata after it spent four days waiting in vain for permission to dock. It arrived under cover from 10 Turkish air force F-16 fighter planes and two navy frigates, Mr Akin said.
Government forces have been shelling the rebel-held city of Misrata since early this morning, a rebel spokesman said.
"The shelling started in the early hours of the morning and it's continuing, using mortars and artillery. This is pure terrorism. The shelling is targeting residential areas. We know there are casualties but I don't know how many," the spokesman told Reuters by telephone.
Elsewhere, Brega, spread across about 25km, has changed hands several times during the past month as government troops and opposition forces fought along a coastal strip that divides the rebel-held east and Col Gadafy's stronghold in the west.
Showing signs of greater organisation than in past weeks, rebels aided by Western air strikes have moved more cautiously and held ground more stubbornly than before despite facing better-equipped government ground forces.
A Libyan government envoy has begun a trip to Europe to discuss an end to fighting, but gave no sign of any major climbdown in a war that has ground to a stalemate between rebels and forces loyal to Col Gadafy.
Libyan deputy foreign minister Abdelati Obeidi flew to Athens late yesterday carrying a personal message from Col Gadafy to Greek prime minister George Papandreou that Libya wanted the fighting to end, a Greek government official said.
However, Italy today threw its weight behind the rebel council, saying on today it was the only group that could speak for the country. Speaking after a meeting with Ali Essawi, a member of the Libyan rebel council with responsibility for foreign affairs, Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini said Rome was giving its backing to the rebels.
"We have decided to recognise the council as the only political, legitimate interlocutor to represent Libya, he told reporters. The comments were the clearest sign yet from Italy, the former colonial power in Libya and previously Col Gadafy's closest friend in Europe, that it now fully backs the Transitional National Council, the rebel group that has coalesced out of disparate anti-Gadafy forces.
Mr Frattini said he had spoken to officials in Greece after the deputy Libyan foreign minister flew there to discuss an end to the fighting in Libya and said the proposals from Gaddafi's government were "not credible".
"The regime of Tripoli is sending people to some countries - to Greece, to Malta, sending people to make proposals. These proposals are not credible," he said.
The UN-mandated military intervention that began on March 19th was meant to protect civilians caught up in fighting between Col Gadafy's forces and the rebels.
Neither Col Gadafy's troops nor the disorganised rebel force have been able to gain the upper hand on the front line, despite Western air power in effect aiding the insurgents.
After chasing each other up and down the coast road linking the oil ports of eastern Libya with Col Gadafy's tribal heartland further west, they have become bogged down in Brega, a sparsely populated settlement spread over more than 25km.
Yet Western countries, wary of becoming too entangled in another war after campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, have ruled out sending ground troops to help the rebels.
In the west, Col Gadafy's forces continued to besiege Misrata, shelling a building that had been used to treat wounded, a resident said, killing one person and wounding more.
Misrata, Libya's third city, rose up with other towns against Col Gadafy's rule in mid-February, but it is now surrounded by government troops after a violent crackdown put an end to most protests elsewhere in the west of the country.
After weeks of shelling and encirclement, Col Gadafy's forces appear to be gradually loosening the rebels' hold on Misrata. Rebels say they still control the city centre and the port, but government troops are pressing in.
Accounts from Misrata cannot be independently verified because Libyan authorities are not allowing journalists to report freely from the city, 200km east of Tripoli.
Col Gadafy's troops are also mopping up resistance southwest of Tripoli. Government forces shelled the small town of Yafran, killing two people, Arabiya television reported, quoting a witness. They also shelled the city of Zintan, a resident said.
Reuters