Deputy Foreign Minister Kaim, however, insisted that government forces were observing a cease-fire in Misrata, despite numerous reports to the contrary:

"The situation is just confined to a number of pockets of violence and snipers scattered in different areas of Misrata,” he added. “There is no attack from the Libyan forces, from air or from ground, and there are no military operations of the ground in Misrata."

Closer to the main rebel-held city of Benghazi in eastern Libya, fighting between lightly-armed rebel forces and Gadhafi loyalists continued on the outskirts of Ajdabiya for a third day, with little sign of change.

Elsewhere, people in the western Libyan town of Zintan, between Tripoli and the Tunisian border, told al-Arabiya TV that pro-Gadhafi forces continue to shell their town.