Libyan rebels are closing in on the centre of Tripoli as the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi calls for negotiations.
Gaddafi has made two appeals for Libyans to take to the streets and save his regime, even though his spokesman has said the government is ready to engage in 'immediate' talks with the rebels.
Main developments:
- Rebel fighters enter Tripoli with little sign of resistance
- Thousands celebrate on outskirts of Tripoli
- Gaddafi calls on citizens to take up arms
- Government spokesman says regime ready to talk with rebels
- Safe passage offered to Gaddafi and his sons if they agree to step down
- Seif al-Islam, a son of Gaddafi, is captured
- Muammar Gaddafi's eldest son, Mohammed Al-Gaddafi, surrenders to rebels
Updates:
2347 Al-Jazeera TV is reporting that rebels say all of Tripoli us under control, except Gaddafi’s stronghold on Bab Al-Aziziyah.
2341 NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh has said Gaddafi’s 42-year rule in Libya is ‘clearly crumbling’.
‘The Gaddafi regime is clearly crumbling. The sooner Gaddafi realises that he cannot win the battle against his own people, the better - so that the Libyan people can be spared further bloodshed and suffering,’ he said in a statement.
Saying the Libyan people had ‘suffered tremendously’ under Gaddafi's rule, Mr Rasmussen said it was ‘time to create a new Libya - a state based on freedom, not fear; democracy, not dictatorship; the will of the many, not the whims of a few.’
He said NATO was ready to work with the NTC and underscored the need for a ‘smooth and inclusive’ transition.
2231 Muammar Gaddafi's eldest son, Mohammed Al-Gaddafi, has surrendered to Libyan rebel forces, NTC Co-ordinator Adel Dabbechi has told Reuters.
He also confirmed that Gaddafi's better-known younger son, Saif Al-Islam, had been captured.
2322 Libyan rebel council spokesman Abdel Hafiz Ghoga says his group will seek to put in place a swift transition to democracy once the battle for Tripoli ends in the rebels' favour.
2312 Seif al-Islam, a son of Gaddafi, has been captured, according to rebel leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil.
The chairman of the rebel National Transitional Council told Al-Jazeera television from Benghazi in eastern Libya he had information that Seif al-Islam has been captured.
‘He is being kept in a secure place under close guard until he is handed over to the judiciary,’ Mr Abdel Jalil said, without giving a date or place for the reported capture of Kadhafi's son.
Before the revolt which erupted in February, al-Islam was increasingly seen as the successor to his father, despite publicly ruling out any dynastic ambitions.
He long served as the face of the regime in the West as he appeared in suits and ties and spoke fluent English.
2305 NATO has said it will continue to enforce its United Nations mandate to protect civilians in Libya.
‘What we continue to do is we continue to enforce the UN mandate that we have, which is to protect civilians,’ NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said.
‘All sides in this conflict have a clear responsibility to protect civilians ... If we see that there are further (attempts) to attack civilians, we'll continue to enforce the mandate.’
NATO has conducted air strikes in Libya since the end of March to fulfil a United Nations mandate calling for military action to protect civilians in the Libyan conflict.
2303 Gaddafi has called on the people of Tripoli to ‘purge the capital’.
The people should ‘go out now to purge the capital,’ Gaddafi said in an audio message broadcast on Libyan state television, adding that there was ‘no place for the agents of colonialism in Tripoli and Libya.’
2301 Gaddafi has made a second appeal for his people to ‘save Tripoli’ from a rebel offensive, in an audio message played on state television.
‘It is the obligation of all Libyans. It is a question of life or death,’ he said.
Gaddafi made a similar appeal earlier in the evening on state television, as rebels streamed into the capital.
Al Arabiya television aired images of Libyans celebrating in central Tripoli and tearing down Gaddafi posters, the first images from the city since rebels entered from the west earlier in the day.
2259 Britain has said 'the end was near' for Gaddafi.
'It is clear from the scenes we are witnessing in Tripoli that the end is near for Kadhafi,' said a statement from Prime Minister David Cameron's Downing Street office.
'He has committed appalling crimes against the people of Libya and he must go now to avoid any further suffering for his own people,' added the statement.
2250 Libya's rebel fighters will halt their offensive if Muammar Gaddafi announces his departure.
The offer was made by the head of Libya's rebel National Transitional Council, Mustapha Abd El Jalil.
He added that the rebel forces would give Gaddafi and his sons safe passage out of the country.
2235 Gaddafi's government is ready for immediate negotiations with rebels seeking to oust him, a spokesman has said on state television.
Spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said Gaddafi was prepared to negotiate directly with the head of the rebel National Transitional Council.
