Forces opposed to Muammar Gaddafi took control of several western Libyan towns, an official said yesterday as the strongman played down rebel gains after world leaders called on him to quit.
Protest leaders established a transitional “national council” in several eastern and western cities seized from the Gaddafi regime and called on the army to help them take the capital Tripoli.
The United States said, meanwhile, it was prepared to offer “any kind of assistance” to Libyans seeking to overthrow Colonel Gaddafi as his opponents piece together a transitional body comprising representatives from the liberated cities.
The unrest in the oil-rich north African state has set off a “humanitarian emergency”, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said, as almost 100,000 migrant workers fled Libya in a mass exodus of foreigners.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton echoed the calls of world leaders, including President Barack Obama, for him to quit.
“We are just at the beginning of what will follow Gaddafi,” she said.
“First we have to see the end of his regime and with no further bloodshed,” she said, noting Washington is eager for his ouster “as soon as possible.”
“We want him to leave.”
Ms Clinton spoke ahead of a ministerial-level UN Human Rights Council meeting on Monday, and bilateral talks with many of her counterparts about the crisis.
The UN Security Council imposed a travel and assets ban on Col Gaddafi’s regime and ordered an investigation into possible crimes against humanity after at least 1,000 people were killed in a crackdown by Col Gaddafi’s security apparatus.
London said it had frozen Gaddafi family assets in Britain, amid newspaper reports that these amount to around £20 billion (€23.4 billion) in liquid assets, mostly in London.
A community organiser, Abdel Hafiz Ghoqa, told reporters in Benghazi yesterday that a transitional “national council” had been set up in cities seized from the regime.
“The creation of a national council has been announced in all freed cities of Libya,” he said.
The council is the “face of Libya in the transitional period”, he said, adding that consultations were under way on the new body’s composition and duties.
“The people of Libya will liberate their cities,” Mr Ghoqa said. “We are counting on the army to liberate Tripoli.”
On Saturday, former justice minister Mustafa Abdel Jalil, who quit Col Gaddafi’s regime last Monday, announced a transitional government would be formed to lead the country for a three-month period before an election.
In neighbouring Egypt, visiting US senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman urged Washington to recognise a transitional government in Libya and provide it with weapons and humanitarian assistance to oust the Libyan strongman.
Meanwhile Col Gaddafi yesterday dismissed the UN sanctions as invalid and claimed calm had returned to Libya as the territories held by the opposition were “surrounded.”
In his telephone statement to Serbian television, the Libyan leader insisted the situation in his north African country was calm at the moment.
“There are no incidents at the moment and Libya is completely quiet. There is nothing unusual. There is no unrest,” he claimed, adding that only a small number of people had been killed on both sides.
Of the territory held by the opposition, Col Gaddafi said: “There is a small group (of opponents) that is surrounded, but we will sort that out.”
But his crumbling regime now controls only some western areas around the capital and a few long-time bastions in the arid south, reporters and witnesses say.