"Qadhafi says they took back Ras Lanuf, but we are still here in Ras Lanuf and not only here, but further (west)," Colonel Bashir al-Moghrabi, one of the rebel leaders in Ras Lanuf told reporters outside the only hotel in town.
AFP correspondents are among a number of foreign journalists staying in a hotel on the western outskirts of Ras Lanuf and there were no sounds of any fighting around the town during the night.
"There were no clashes during the night, the town is under our control," another rebel fighter told AFP.
A Libyan state television channel had reported earlier that the town had been recaptured by loyalist forces, along with the third city of Misrata and the town of Tobruk, which controls the road to the Egyptian border.
The rebels have vowed to march on Sirte, Qadhafi's home town about 150 kilometres from Bin Jawad, which was the furthest point AFP saw them deployed along the Mediterranean coast on Saturday. Asked when they would move on Sirte, Moghrabi said: "We don't know. All the soldiers are coming from Benghazi. We are more than 8,000 men."