Updated: Gaddafi defiant as fighting tears Libyan rebel stronghold

Fighting raged around Libya's rebel stronghold of Benghazi today as Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi gave a defiant response to world leaders planning military action against him.

A huge plume of smoke rose over Libya's second city as hundreds of people fled eastward after a series of air strikes and sustained shelling, an AFP reporter said.

Earlier the Libyan government said it was observing a ceasefire it had announced yesterday, shortly after the United Nations voted to authorise the use of force against Gaddafi's troops to spare civilians.

It said its armed forces were under attack west of Benghazi and had responded in self-defence.

The rebels, who have been trying to overthrow the Libyan leader for more than a month, said his troops had continued to bombard cities, violating the ceasefire continuously since its declaration.

"The gangs of Al-Qaeda attacked the units of the Libyan armed forces stationed to the west of Benghazi," a statement carried by the official Jana news agency said, using Tripoli's term for the insurgents.

It accused the rebels of using "a helicopter and a fighter jet to bomb the Libyan armed forces in blatant violation of the no-fly zone imposed by the UN Security Council."

A warplane was seen coming down in a residential area of Benghazi with flames emerging from the rear fuselage, triggering celebratory gunfire from the rebels.

The pilot ejected from the aircraft, which was identified as a Russian-built MiG-23 fighter as used by the Libyan air force. However a number of military units defected to the rebellion soon after the revolt broke out.

In messages to French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron, main sponsors of yesterday's UN resolution, Gaddafi said they would regret interfering in his country's affairs, a spokesman said in Tripoli.

"If you intervene in our country you will regret it," a spokesman in Tripoli quoted him as telling them, adding that Gaddafi had also sent messages to US President Barack Obama and UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

And he told Obama that the Libyan people were "prepared to die for me -- men, women and children."

Libya's deputy foreign minister had denied late yesterday any plans to attack the rebel bastion and said the government forces would not breach the ceasefire.

Khaled Kaaim also called for the immediate deployment of foreign observers, saying otherwise "the accusations and counter-accusations will not stop."

In an interview with BBC radio today Kaaim said any foreign intervention would prompt the people from Libya's neighbours to rally to Gaddafi.

France was to host later today what it said would be a "decisive" summit with the European Union, Arab League and African Union, as well as UN chief Ban Ki-moon, on taking military action in Libya.

France's ambassador to the UN, Gerard Araud, said he expected military intervention within hours of the summit.

Late yesterday, the French presidency said that France, Britain, the United States and Arab countries had told Gaddafi to "immediately" cease all attacks against his people or face the consequences.

A statement said "that a ceasefire must be put in place immediately, that is, that all attacks against civilians must come to an end."

It added that "Gaddafi must end his troops' advance on Benghazi and withdraw from Ajdabiya, Misrata and Zawiyah," referring to rebel-held towns attacked or captured by government forces in the past few days.

"That is not negotiable," it said, warning that if Gaddafi did not comply with the Security Council resolution 1973, he would face "consequences" from the international community and "the resolution will be imposed by military means".

The summit, hosted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, will also be attended by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

So far Belgium, Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Qatar and the United States have said they will help to implement the no-fly zone.

"Left unchecked, we have every reason to believe that Gaddafi would commit atrocities against his people," Obama said yesterday, reinforcing the international message. "Many thousands could die. A humanitarian crisis would ensue."

In another Middle East hotspot, medics in Yemen today raised the death toll from a sniper attack on protesters to 52 as thousands rallied despite a state of emergency imposed by the autocratic regime.

The slaughter in the capital Sanaa yesterday was the bloodiest day in weeks of unrest that has shaken the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a key US ally in the war against Al-Qaeda militants on the Arabian Peninsula.

In Bahrain, Shiite-led pro-democracy protesters against the Sunni monarchy said they would not give up despite being cleared by police from the central Pearl Square.

And in Syria, a Facebook page behind an unprecedented string of protests called for a new rally today in the city of Homs, naming the venue in advance in a bold step under the iron-fisted regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

The fresh call for protests came one day after rights groups reported security forces killed four people and wounded hundreds in a rally in the southern city of Daraa.