Libya rebels push to cut off defiant Qadhafi

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But the embattled leader remained defiant, telling supporters on Friday that "the regime in Libya will not fall."

After heavy fighting, rebel fighters captured the desert hamlet of Gualish on Wednesday, taking them closer to the strategic garrison town Gharyan and the last major objective standing between them and Tripoli to the north.

For now, they have set their sights on Asablah, 17 kilometres north of Gualish on the road to Gharyan.

"Three times we tried to take Gualish before we succeeded," said rebel fighter Mohial Omar, 21. "That was the hardest part. Now it's going to be easier."

One of his comrades, 28-year-old Talal Ahmed, explained.

"We have plenty of rebels inside Asablah. NATO bombed there heavily on Friday and that stresses the (Qadhafi) soldiers and makes them more unsteady.

"We are just waiting for the go-ahead from NATO."

Following that, the objective is to head straight for Gharyan, which lies on the main highway south out of Tripoli, 80 kilometres (50 miles) away, Ahmed said.

"Once we control that city, Qadhafi will no longer be able to receive weapons from the south, nor will he be able to flee in that direction. By attacking him on two or three fronts, we weaken him."

A second target in a three-pronged strategy is the coastal city of Zawiyah, one of the last major loyalist strongholds west of Tripoli.

Outside Bir al-Ghanam, 50 kilometres inland, rebels are also awaiting the nod from NATO so that they can move forward.

"For now, we are in a defensive posture, but we are ready to attack whenever," said a rebel commander there, Fathi al-Aaeib. "We don't know the word 'retreat.'"

The authorities in Bir al-Ghanam have been warned of an impending attack so that civilians can be evacuated.

But some fighters are impatient with NATO and its air campaign against Qadhafi's armour.

"They have been very slow for the past few days," said one.

"I hope that they will concentrate on this region. The (Muslim fasting) month of Ramadan is coming (in August), and it's going to be more difficult to fight without eating."

In Brussels, NATO said on Saturday it had struck targets in Libya the previous day including tanks, rocket launch sites, artillery, military storage facilities and command and control centres.

And from a base in Misrata, 215 kilometres east of the capital, the rebels reported on Friday battling to within two kilometres of the centre of Zliten town with the loss of five dead and 17 wounded.

Rebel spokesman Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani in Benghazi confirmed on Saturday that Zliten was in the insurgents' sights.

"When we take Zliten, enforced with Misrata, it gives us a clear path" to Tripoli, he said.

Qadhafi defiantly said in a radio address to supporters in the southern desert town of Sabha -- a loyalist stronghold -- that "the regime in Libya will not fall. It is based on the people, not on Qadhafi. NATO is wrong if it thinks it can topple the regime of this country.

"Our only choice is resistance -- we are on home ground and are not afraid of your war machine," he said, addressing NATO directly.

Amid the fighting, the rival factions are in talks with the United Nations to try to avert an acute shortage of medical and other essential supplies caused by international sanctions, AFP has learned.

Well-placed UN officials said representatives of Libya's rebel council and the Qadhafi regime held talks last week with the World Health Organisation aimed at drawing up a list of items for sanctions relief.

Meanwhile, four boats carrying around 1,000 migrants fleeing the conflict arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa on Friday night, Italy's ANSA news agency reported.