Zawiya: Libya's embattled leader Muammar Gaddafi said Saturday his country will never surrender in the face of assaults by rebels and a Nato air campaign.

In an audio address directed at the city of Zawiya where thousands demonstrated their support, Gaddafi promised that Libya would keep fighting.

"After we gave our children as martyrs, we can't backtrack, or surrender or give up or move an inch," he said, his voice booming over loudspeakers in the centre of town. "Rest assured in your tombs, our martyrs, we will not betray you ever."

The speech was the third in as many days, each addressing inhabitants of a town under his control while thousands chanted their support for the country's leader of the past 41 years.

In his speech, also broadcast on national television, Gaddafi said the Nato airstrikes on Libya must stop to save civilian lives.

The rally was staged in the centre of Zawiya, a city once under rebel control in the early weeks of the revolt against Gaddafi's rule and only taken back after a brutal battle.

The centre of the city still bore scars of the fighting, with burned out and shattered buildings overlooking the cheering crowds swathed in green, Libya's national colour.
"Here is Zawiya. Where are the ... traitors and the agents that you depended on? Where are those you bought with your money, you brainwashed?" he asked, addressing Nato.

"Zawiya can't be ruled by agents, non-believers, and traitors who are seeking help from the cross," he added.

International recognition

The speeches and rallies come after Libya's main opposition group was recognised by more than 30 nations, including the US, as Libya's legitimate government.

Friday's decision potentially frees up billions of dollars in cash that the rebels urgently need.

Libya's civil war has fallen into a stalemate since the mass uprising seeking to oust ruler Gaddafi broke out in mid-February. Rebels have set up an interim administration in the eastern city of Benghazi and seized control of the port city of Misrata and much of the western Nafusa mountain range.

Gaddafi controls the rest from his stronghold in the capital Tripoli.

But rebel forces - mostly volunteers armed with captured weapons - have failed to make significant advances recently, even with Nato bombing Gaddafi's troops under a UN mandate to protect civilians.

On Saturday 10 rebels were killed in their latest advance on the strategic oil town of Brega. Rebel fighters said they were sweeping the outskirts for land mines so they could move in.

Rebels have been trying to take the town with its large gas and oil storage facilities for weeks.