TRIPOLI: Moamer Qadhafi vowed Saturday not to step down and proposed talks to end Libya's conflict, a call rejected by rebels and by NATO, as his forces pressed an offensive against the key port of Misrata.
At the same time, a rebel spokesman said he feared loyalists were seeking to open a new front in the eastern desert to advance on Ajdabiya, a strategic road junction and gateway to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
In an early-morning speech on state television, the Libyan leader said NATO "must abandon all hope of his departure.
"I have no official functions to give up: I will not leave my country and will fight to the death," he said.
But he added a conciliatory note.
"We are ready to talk with France and the United States, but with no preconditions," Qadhafi said.
"We will not surrender, but I call on you to negotiate. If you want petrol, we will sign contracts with your companies -- it is not worth going to war over.
"Between Libyans, we can solve our problems without being attacked, so pull back your fleets and your planes," he told NATO.
Qadhafi said the rebels battling his forces "are terrorists who are not from Libya, but from Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia and Afghanistan."
He also insisted his people love him, that he is like a father to them -- "more sacred than the emperor of Japan is to his people."
His call for talks was dismissed by the opposition Transitional National Council, which has shaped itself into a parallel government in the eastern city of Benghazi, and by NATO.
"The time for compromise has passed," said TNC vice chairman Abdul Hafiz Ghoga.
"The people of Libya cannot possibly envisage or accept a future Libya in which Kadhafi's regime plays any role," he added.
In Brussels, a NATO official also rejected the offer of talks.
"We need to see not words but actions," the official told AFP.
UN Security Council Resolution "1973 explicitly calls for an end to attacks on and abuses of civilians. The regime has announced ceasefires several times before and continued attacking cities and civilians," the official said.
On the ground, witnesses reported two loud blasts at dawn in eastern Tripoli after Kadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, vowed on Friday that Libya will "fight NATO for 40 years" if necessary.
"We will not raise the white flag of surrender," he said on a tour of hospitals to visit people said to have been wounded in NATO bombardments.
And the regime threatened to attack any ships trying to enter the rebel-held port of Misrata, after tanks launched an assault on the city east of Tripoli.
Misrata's port is a crucial conduit for humanitarian aid to the city of half a million, which Kadhafi's forces have been trying to capture for more than seven weeks.
The fighting in Misrata has intensified 10 weeks after government forces launched a deadly crackdown on protests inspired by regime-changing movements in Tunisia and Egypt.
An AFP correspondent there said 10 people had been killed and 20 wounded by mid-afternoon on Saturday, with witnesses saying as many as five tanks were seeking to advance on the city from the airport.
Earlier, AFP journalists reported loud blasts and heavy machine-gun fire from the direction of the airport after rebels said they destroyed at least four advancing tanks.
Loyalist forces were pushed back from Misrata by the rebels and NATO air strikes on Monday, but remained within rocket range of the city. The rebels said earlier this week they had secured the port and that their next objective was the airport.
Meanwhile, the regime said it would attack "with force" any ship entering Misrata port.
State television also said the military had "put the port out of service," and that delivery of humanitarian aid to Misrata should now be carried out "overland and under the supervision of the armed forces."
British Brigadier Rob Weighill, director of NATO operations in Libya, said NATO warships stopped Qadhafi forces from laying mines in Misrata harbour on Friday.
"Our ships intercepted the small boats that were laying them and we are disposing the mines that we found," Weighill said at his headquarters in Naples, Italy.
"It again shows his complete disregard for international law and his willingness to attack humanitarian delivery efforts," he said of Kadhafi.
The International Organisation for Migration said in Geneva an IOM ship to evacuate refugees was staying out to sea for the moment.
"The ship is 12 miles off Misrata. We are not going in for the moment," said a spokesman. "We are waiting to get clearance to go in."
In Benghazi, meanwhile, a rebel said loyalists had stormed the eastern oasis town of Jalo, several hundred kilometres south, and killed six civilians.
He said the loyalists then continued moving towards the rebel-held, virtual ghost town of Ajdabiya, about 240 kilometres (150 miles) to the north.
"It seems Qadhafi is trying to open another front in the south," said a second rebel, and TNC spokesman Jalal al-Gallal said the attack was "not a great sign."
"Qadhafi has troops travelling around the desert to spread fear, death and destruction but he doesn't have the numbers to hold the gains," he told AFP.
The rebels said the troops that entered Jalo were the same ones that on Thursday swept into Kufrah, which lies hundreds of kilometres further south.
At the time, a spokesman said rebels had withdrawn from there after "putting up a light resistance," and that Qadhafi forces were "now in control of three quarters of the city."
AFP was receiving mixed reports about who now held the town.
Kufrah is the main city in Kufrah province, which lies in the southeastern corner of the country, bordering Chad, Sudan and Egypt.
Abeir Imneina, a political science professor in Benghazi, said "the south is an area of advantage for Qadhafi as there has always been considerable military aid coming from the border countries, especially Chad."
In western Libya, NATO said its warplanes would focus on regime forces threatening the towns of Zintan and Yefren, scenes of heavy fighting.
Meanwhile, rebels were expecting a new Qadhafi offensive for control of the Dehiba border crossing into Tunisia, witnesses said on Saturday, a day after they retook it from loyalists in fierce fighting.
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