Libyan fighting goes on after peace bid fails

TRIPOLI, (Reuters) – An African Union plan to halt  Libya’s civil war collapsed, and rebels said the increasingly  bloody siege of the city of Misrata by Muammar Gaddafi’s troops  made talk of a ceasefire meaningless.

The Red Cross said it was opening a Tripoli office and would  send a team to Misrata to help civilians trapped by fighting,  but one of Gaddafi’s ministers warned any aid operation  involving foreign troops would be seen as a declaration of war.

Rebel leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said after talks with the  AU delegation in Benghazi in the rebel-held east yesterday:

“The African Union initiative does not include the departure  of Gaddafi and his sons from the Libyan political scene,  therefore it is outdated.”  Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saif quickly dismissed  the idea of his father stepping down.

“We want new blood, that’s what we want for Libya’s future.  But to talk of (Gaddafi) leaving, that’s truly ridiculous,” he  told French news channel BFM TV.

“If the West wants democracy, a new constitution, elections,  well, we agree. We agree on this point but the West must help us  to provide a propitious climate. But all these bombings, this  support given to rebel groups, all that is counter-productive.”

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Libyan television said the “colonial and crusader  aggressors” hit military and civilian sites in Al Jufrah  district in central Libya on Monday.    Rebels in the coastal city of Misrata, under siege for six  weeks, scorned reports that Gaddafi had accepted a ceasefire,  saying they were fighting house-to-house battles with his  forces, who fired rockets into the city.

Western leaders also rejected any deal that did not include  Gaddafi’s removal, and NATO refused to suspend its bombing of  his forces unless there was a credible ceasefire.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a Brussels  news briefing that Gaddafi’s government had announced ceasefires  in the past, but “they did not keep their promises”.

“Any future proposal that does not include this, we cannot  accept,” he said, accusing Gaddafi of bombing, shelling and  shooting civilians.

A resident of Misrata told Reuters there was heavy fighting  on the eastern approaches and in the centre.