UN says Gaddafi promised access to Misrata, no promises on ceasefire however

UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said, during a meeting with Libyan officials in Tripoli on Sunday, she demanded in that the UN be permitted to visit Misrata and other towns to assess the humanitarian needs there. "I have been given those assurances," she said on Monday, speaking in Benghazi.

However, she added that she received "no guarantees with respect to my call for an overall cessation of hostilities, to enable people to move, to enable us to deliver supplies."

A Libyan official said the government is willing to set up "safe passage" into Misrata, the only city still partly held by rebels in Gadhafi-controlled western Libya. But at the same time, a witness in Misrata reported Monday that government forces continued to pound the city with rockets and artillery.

So far, at least 267 people have been killed in Misrata, Libya's third-largest city, during more than seven weeks of siege, the New York-based Human Rights Watch has said.

It said the final toll is likely higher. After inspecting impact sites and talking to witnesses, the group accused Libyan forces of launching indiscriminate rocket and mortar attacks on residential neighborhoods.

Rebels and civilians evacuated from Misrata by boat as part of an international rescue mission were taken off on gurneys or in wheelchairs Monday. One had a severely damaged leg with braces and bandages and some women carried babies.

The rebels have controlled much of eastern Libya, including the second-largest Libyan city of Benghazi, since early on in the uprising against Gadhafi that began in mid-February.

Gadhafi loyalists have crushed other rebellions in western Libya, but have not been able to take back control of Misrata through many weeks of attacks. Despite countless reports affirming otherwise, the Libyan government has denied firing heavy weapons, including rockets and tank shells, at the city.

"If there is killing of civilians, we are saying that the rebels are the ones killing civilians," government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said yesterday, adding that the rebels have received weapons by sea from the Gulf state of Qatar.

He also alleged that European governments have also started arming the Misrata fighters, but did not elaborate or substantiate his claims.

The Libyan government has also turned down repeated requests by foreign journalists based in the capital of Tripoli to visit Misrata and report on events unfolding in the port city. Journalists in Tripoli are not allowed to tour western Libya independently without government minders.

Ibrahim, the Libyan official, said the government is willing to take international organizations, including the U.N., into the areas of Misrata it controls. "We will help them do everything they want, help the population, and they can observe the way our army is acting and behaving in Misrata," he said.

The battle for Misrata and warnings by aid officials of an increasingly dire situation there have turned into a test of NATO's resolve to protect Libyan civilians, as mandated by the U.N.