Muammar Gaddafi rolled defiantly through the streets of Tripoli, pumping his fists as he poked through the sun roof of an SUV - the same day that Nato air strikes shook the city.
Meanwhile the alliance's foreign ministers, while united in their aim to pressure the Libyan leader to go, argued at a meeting over whether to step up military operations that have so far failed to rout him.
Gaddafi gave no sign yesterday that he was willing to relent, despite two months of civil war and mounting international pressure for him to move aside. Instead, his loyalists pounded rebel positions in the besieged western city of Misrata with dozens of rockets for several hours, killing at least 13 people.
The main target of the assault was Misrata's port, the only lifeline for rebels who have been trying to defend positions in the city, Libya's third-largest, against Gaddafi's forces.
Early today Gaddafi's daughter Aisha sent another defiant message from her father's Bab al-Aziziyah compound in the capital of Tripoli, badly damaged exactly 25 years ago in an April 15 1986 bombing by US warplanes. That attack came in response to a bombing that had killed two US servicemen at a German disco.
"Leave our skies with your bombs," Gaddafi's daughter told a cheering crowd, addressing the international community. "We are a people that cannot be defeated."
Wearing a green headscarf and a leather jacket, she waved to the crowd of several hundred and led them in chants from a second-floor balcony that in the past was used by her father to deliver speeches.
Yesterday several large explosions were heard in Tripoli and a column of black smoke rose from the south-eastern part of the city, followed by the sound of anti-aircraft guns, a resident said.
Libyan state television showed Gaddafi - dressed in a black Western blazer, black crew neck T-shirt, sunglasses and a hat - standing through the open sun roof of a sport utility vehicle on a fist-pumping, rapid ride through Tripoli with dozens of supporters chasing behind him. Libyan TV said the trip came on the same day that Nato air strikes hit military and civilian areas in the capital.
The TV report said there were civilian casualties from the attacks. The report could not be confirmed.
The fighting in Libya began in mid-February when large anti-government protests escalated into a civil war. Rebels hold much of eastern Libya, while Gaddafi controls the west, with the front line shifting back and forth in the middle. Three weeks of international air strikes have not routed Gaddafi's forces.
United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon chaired a Cairo meeting of regional and international organisations on Libya and set three targets - reaching and implementing a ceasefire, delivering humanitarian aid and starting a dialogue on Libya's future.
"Shelling your own people is not acceptable," he said at a meeting at Arab League headquarters, referring to actions by Gaddafi's forces. "This is a violation of human rights."
At a two-day meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Berlin, the US and its allies put up a united front on the goals of the alliance's stalemated military mission in Libya but failed to resolve behind-the-scenes squabbling over how to achieve them.
Members agreed on paper with US president Barack Obama that Gaddafi had to go to end the crisis and also made clear that they would not be the ones to oust him.
Although several Nato members want the alliance to commit more planes to expand the air campaign, the first day of meetings closed without any specific commitments for more aircraft.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton appealed for unity, saying Gaddafi was taunting the alliance by continuing to strike cities held by rebels.
"As our mission continues, maintaining our resolve and unity only grows more important," she said. "Gaddafi is testing our determination."
The US is resisting suggestions that it resume a large combat role to break a deadlock between rebels and better-armed forces loyal to Gaddafi. Mrs Clinton and other top diplomats pointedly said their UN mandate for an air campaign did not extend to Gaddafi's exit by force.
The allies again resolved to enforce a UN arms embargo, protect civilians acting to push Gaddafi forces out of cities they have entered, and get in humanitarian aid.
But differences over the scope of the military operation persisted, with Britain and France insisting on more action, particularly from sophisticated US surveillance and weapons systems, and US officials maintaining that the alliance already had the tools to get the job done.
Rebel spokesman Mustafa Gheriani said the opposition in Benghazi was encouraged by the diplomatic talks but worried that it would not translate in to concrete action fast enough to prevent more civilian deaths.