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TRIPOLI - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi vowed on state television Tuesday that he would never surrender as NATO-led warplanes pounded Tripoli with one of the heaviest bombardments of the air war so far.
In the audio message, his first intervention since he appeared on state television on May 19, Gaddafi said that he was close to the bombing but was still resisting and called on his people to resist too.
"Despite the bombings, we will never submit," Gaddafi said in the nine-minute broadcast. "I am near the bombing but I am still resisting.
"We have only one choice - (to stay in) our country to the end. Death, life, victory, no matter what. We will not leave our country or sell it, we will not submit," Gaddafi said.
"I do not think about life or death, I think only of doing my duty."
Shortly after the recording was broadcast, fresh air strikes hit the Libyan capital, continuing a bombardment that had gone on throughout the day.
An AFP correspondent heard eight loud explosions from the area around Gaddafi's compound in the late morning, followed by more than a dozen in the early afternoon.
A plume of smoke rose over a barracks in the complex which was "once again targeted by NATO," government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said.
Journalists taken on an escorted tour of the bomb-damaged compound were shown a dead body, draped in a green Libyan flag, which Ibrahim said was among a number of casualties from the air strikes.
An information ministry minder said that six bombs had struck the compound itself and eight the barracks just opposite.
The British defence ministry said targets included a secret police headquarters in the heart of Tripoli and a major military installation on the outskirts.
"The missions were flown as part of a coordinated series of precision attacks throughout the day and night by NATO aircraft targeting intelligence and military facilities in the Libyan capital," defence staff spokesman Major General Nick Pope said.
US President Barack Obama said after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the pressure on Gaddafi "will only continue to increase" until the Libyan leader steps down.
"The chancellor and I have been clear. Gaddafi must step down and hand power to the Libyan people, and the pressure will only continue to increase until he does," Obama told reporters at the White House standing alongside the German leader.
"What you're seeing across the country is an inexorable trend of the regime forces being pushed back, being incapacitated.
"You're seeing defections, often times of some very high-profile members of the Gaddafi government, as well as the military.
"I think it is just a matter of time before Gaddafi goes."
Labour Minister Al-Amin Manfur became the latest member of Gaddafi's regime to defect, announcing he was changing sides at a meeting of the International Labour Organisation in Geneva.
In Libya's second city Benghazi, President Dmitry Medvedev's envoy Mikhail Margelov met rebel leaders in the first trip by a top Russian official to their eastern stronghold.
Margelov, Medvedev's African envoy, said Russia was prepared to provide financial support to the rebels but opposed any escalation of the conflict.
"Air strikes don't solve problems. We are in favour of a political solution, not a military escalation," he said.
The rebels said they were ready to receive Russian aid "tomorrow", but stressed that they would not enter any negotiations until Gaddafi stepped down.
"The only message that he can deliver to Gaddafi as far as the rebellion is concerned is 'Leave'," rebel spokesman Mahmoud Shammam said.
Margelov said Moscow was prepared to "facilitate dialogue between the two camps," but Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed Russia did not want to be the lead mediator.
"We have said several times that the African Union has the main role," Lavrov told reporters on a visit to NATO member Norway.
Moscow has expressed alarm as NATO's air campaign to enforce a UN-mandated no-fly zone to protect civilians entered a new phase with the deployment of British and French attack helicopters over the weekend.
UN special envoy Abdul Ilah al-Khatib arrived in Tripoli, the official JANA news agency reported, but there was no immediate word on the details of his latest mission.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said that Iman al-Obeidi, the Libyan woman who accused soldiers loyal to Gaddafi of raping her, has arrived at a refugee centre at Timisoara in western Romania.
A Libyan rebel official last month told AFP that Obeidi had escaped from Libya to Qatar with the help of rebels. But Qatar later sent her back to Libya despite concerns for her safety, UN and US officials said.
Obeidi attracted international media attention when she stormed into the Rixos hotel in Tripoli on March 26 and threw open her coat to reveal scars and bruises on her body.
- AFP/al
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