Main developments:
- Defiant Gaddafi makes public address
- UN-backed air strikes enter fifth day
- Colonel Gaddafi orders release of three journalists
- US bombs wreckage of crashed jet
2249 Western military powers have attacked civilian and military targets in Jafar, southwest of the capital Tripoli, Libyan state TV has reported.
‘Military and civilian targets were attacked by colonialist crusaders,’ the television said, quoting a Libyan military source.
2217 Libyan state news agency JANA has said that coalition raids on a residential neighbourhood east of the capital Tripoli have killed 'a large number' of civilians.
1923 Western powers have carried out air strikes against military and civilian targets in Tripoli, Libyan state television reported.
It gave no further details in the report, which it attributed to a military source.
1920 Pro-Gaddafi forces have bombarded the main hospital in the rebel-held city of Misrata east of the Libyan capital, according to some reports.
1916 A huge blast has been heard on a military base 32km east of the Libyan capital Tripoli, witnesses have told news agency AFP.
1859 NATO nations have failed to agree on giving the Western alliance command of military operations in Libya.
‘There was no agreement and the discussions continue,’ a NATO diplomat said after a new round of talks among ambassadors of the 28-nation alliance.
The debate will resume tomorrow, the diplomat said.
The ambassadors of the 28-nation alliance have held daily meetings to decide whether NATO should join the no-fly zone over Libya.
1855 Elsewhere in the region, UN chief Ban Ki-moon has condemned the violence against protesters in the Syrian town of Deraa and called for an inquiry into the deaths of at least 15 people.
‘There should be a transparent investigation into the killings, and those responsible must be held accountable,’ Ban said, according to his spokesman Martin Nesirky.
‘The secretary-general reiterates his call on the Syrian authorities to refrain from violence and to abide by their international commitments regarding human rights, including the right to peaceful assembly,’ he added.
1703 British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain will host an international conference in London next Tuesday to discuss progress on the military intervention in Libya.
1650 US Rear Admiral Gerard Hueber said he has no reports of civilian casualties caused by coalition forces.
1625 Admiral Hueber has said coalition forces are targeting Libyan mechanised forces, artillery and mobile missile sites.
He said the coalition had flown 175 sorties in the last 24 hours, with the US flying 113 and other countries doing the remainder.
1620 US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said it is ultimately up to Libyans to settle matters in their country.
Mr Gates said: 'It seems to me that if there is a mediation to be done, if there is a role to be played, it is among the Libyans themselves.
'This matter at the end of the day is going to have to be settled by Libyans. It's their country.'
1605 A newsreader for Libyan State television has appeared on screen, brandishing an automatic rifle and pledging to sacrifice his last breath, last bullet, last drop of blood, last baby and child for Muammar Gaddafi.
1454 The US has bombed the wreckage of an F-15 fighter jet that went down in Libya due to mechanical failure.
The wreckage was bombed overnight 'to prevent materials from getting into the wrong hands', an official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.
Yesterday, the Pentagon said the crew of the plane, part of the Western-led coalition drive against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, had been recovered safely.
1238 Western forces have struck an air base south of Misrata where government forces are positioned, but snipers shot two people dead in the centre of the city.
This morning, air strikes twice hit the airbase where Gaddafi's brigades are based,’ a Misrata resident told Reuters.
‘Two people were killed by snipers an hour ago in the centre of the town. Their bodies are now at the hospital, which I visited a while ago. Shooting is still going on there (in the city centre) now,’ he said.
1225 Kuwait and Jordan are to make logistical contributions to back efforts to protect civilians in Libya, Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron has said.
He also said a no-fly zone was in place over Libya, and 11 nations were contributing over 150 aircraft.
'I think as we discussed on Monday there has been an early and good effect in terms of regime forces having to retreat from Benghazi, but clearly there is great concern about what the regime is doing in Misrata,' Mr Cameron told the House of Commons.
1209 There are reports that three people have been killed after pro-Gaddafi snipers fired on a hospital in Misrata.
1139 Libya's rebel national council based in the country's east has named Mahmoud Jabril to head an interim government and pick ministers, Al Jazeera television has reported.
Mr Jabril, a reformer who was once involved in a project to establish a democratic state in Libya, is already the head of a crisis committee to cover military and foreign affairs.
1138 Snipers and shelling killed 17 people, including five children, in Misrata yesterday as forces loyal to Gaddafi pressed their campaign to retake the rebel-held city, a doctor has said.
1053 Western coalition aircraft have launched two strikes on an area of the rebel-held city of Misrata where forces loyal to Gaddafi are based.
The allied planes bombed twice so far, a resident told Reuters.
‘They (pro-Gaddafi forces) haven't fired a single artillery (round) since the air strike,’ the resident said.
1047 The European Union has reached an agreement in principle to impose sanctions on the Libyan National Oil Corporation.
The measures, approved by experts of the 27-nation bloc, are in line with a UN Security Council resolution and must still be formally approved by EU member states before coming into force, a diplomat told AFP.
Yesterday, the United States placed sanctions on 14 firms controlled by the national oil company, saying it has been a primary source of funding for Gaddafi’s regime.
1046 Turkey's president has that some countries in the coalition striking Libya are driven by ‘opportunism’ and have prompted suspicions of ‘secret intentions’ in the oil-rich country.
‘The issue is essentially about peoples' freedom and ending oppression... but unfortunately it is obvious that some countries are driven by opportunism,’ Abdullah Gul told reporters, without giving names.
‘Some who until yesterday were closest to the dictators and sought to take advantage of them... display an excessive behaviour today and raise suspicions of secret intentions,’ he said.
1031 Sweden has said its financial institutions had so far frozen more than €1bn in line with European Union sanctions against the Gaddafi regime.
‘According to the EU's sanction regulation ... with regards to the situation in Libya, Swedish financial companies have reported to the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority having together frozen more than 10bn kronor (€1.12bn, $1.56bn) so far,’ the country's financial regulator said in a statement.
The regulator said it could not, because of privacy rules, specify how much each company had frozen or which companies and people were involved.
Earlier this month, the 27 nations of the EU decided to impose tough new sanctions on the Gaddafi regime, notably on the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), the overseas investment vehicle for Tripoli's oil revenues.
1029 Gaddafi earlier ordered the release of three journalists missing in Libya, including two working with Agence France-Presse and a Getty Images photographer.
‘We at Getty Images are delighted to learn that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has ordered the release of our staff photographer, Joe Raedle, along with Roberto Schmidt, staff photographer with Agence France Presse and David Clark, a reporter with Agence France Presse,’ Getty said in a statement.
Libya released four New York Times journalists on Monday, nearly a week after they had been captured by Libyan forces while covering the conflict there.
1025 In a public address, a defiant Muammar Gaddafi said Libya is 'ready for battle' as Western leaders mulled their next steps on the fifth day of UN-backed military strikes on his oil-rich country.
'We will win this battle,' footage showed Gaddafi telling supporters at his Bab Al-Aziziyah compound in Tripoli that was the target of a coalition missile strike.
