The UN Security Council has voted unanimously to impose sanctions on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, his five adult children and top associates.
Voting after a day of discussions - interrupted at times for consultations with home capitals - council members agreed to freeze the assets of Col Gaddafi, his four sons and one daughter, and to ban travel by the whole family plus 10 close associates.
The day was consumed mainly with haggling behind closed doors over language to refer Libya's violent crackdown on protesters to the International Criminal Court for investigation of possible crimes against humanity.
All 15 nations on the council ultimately approved referring the case to the permanent war crimes tribunal.
The council said its actions were aimed at "deploring the gross and systematic violation of human rights, including the repression of peaceful demonstrators".
And members expressed concern about civilian deaths, "rejecting unequivocally the incitement to hostility and violence against the civilian population made from the highest level of the Libyan government".
The uprising that began on February 15 has swept over nearly the entire eastern half of the country, breaking cities there out of his regime's hold.
Mr Gaddafi and his backers continue to hold the capital Tripoli and have threatened to put down protests aggressively.
There have been reports that Col Gaddafi's government forces have been firing indiscriminately on peaceful protesters and that as many as 1,000 people have died.
Council members did not consider imposing a no-fly zone over Libya, and no UN-sanctioned military action was planned. Nato also has ruled out any intervention in Libya.
The Libyan mission to the UN, run by diplomats who have renounced Mr Gaddafi, told the council in a letter that it supported measures "to hold to account those responsible for the armed attacks against the Libyan civilians, including through the International Criminal Court".
The letter was signed by Ambassador Mohamed Shalgham, a former longtime Gaddafi supporter who had a dramatic change of heart after the crackdown worsened.
Mr Shalgham pleaded with the council on Friday to move quickly to halt the bloodshed in his country.
Yesterday, in Ankara, Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged the council not to impose sanctions, warning that the Libyan people, not Mr Gaddafi's government, would suffer most.
Also yesterday, US President Barack Obama said in a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that Col Gaddafi needs to do what's right for his country by "leaving now".
The White House on Friday announced sweeping new sanctions and temporarily abandoned its embassy in Tripoli as a final flight carrying American citizens left the embattled capital.
The US put an immediate freeze on all assets of the Libyan government held in American banks and other US institutions. The sanctions also freeze assets held by Mr Gaddafi and four of his children.
Col Gaddafi is no stranger to international isolation.
UN sanctions were slapped on his country after suspected Libyan agents planted a bomb that blew up Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988, killing 270 people, mostly Americans.
Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing in 2003 and pledged to end efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction.
The US and Libya in 2009 exchanged ambassadors for the first time in 35 years, after Libya paid about 2.7 billion US dollars in compensation to the families of the Lockerbie victims.
In Geneva on Friday, the UN Human Rights Council called for an investigation into possible crimes against humanity in Libya and recommended Libya's suspension from membership of the world body's top human rights body.