Misrata, Libya: The UN said Tuesday it has sent food for 50,000 people to west Libya as aid groups scrambled to reach trapped civilians and rebels put the death toll from two months of fighting at 10,000.

One month after Nato allies dropped their first bombs on Muammar Gaddafi's forces, there appeared no end in sight to what experts are now warning will be a prolonged military stalemate in which civilians casualties will mount.

And with thousands clamouring to escape the besieged rebel city of Misrata, Britain said it will charter ships to pick up 5,000 migrant workers after a ferry rescued nearly 1,000 on Monday.

The UN's World Food Programme said in Geneva it has opened up a lifeline from Tunisia. "We've managed to open up an humanitarian corridor into western Libya," Emilia Casella, the WFP spokeswoman told journalists.

"A convoy of eight trucks loaded with 240 metric tonnes of wheat flour and 9.1 metric tons of high energy biscuits - enough to feed nearly 50,000 people for 30 days - crossed into western Libya from Ras Jedir crossing point at the Libyan-Tunisian border," the relief agency said.

Death toll

Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said the Libya conflict has so far killed 10,000 people and wounded 55,000, citing figures compiled by the Benghazi-based rebel government.

"The president spoke to us of 10,000 dead and 50,000 to 55,000 injured," Frattini said after talks in Rome with Libyan rebel leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil. Frattini also announced that Italy will host talks next month on allowing foreign oil sales from eastern Libya and could provide Libyan rebels with night-vision kit and radars.

He said after his meeting with Jalil that a meeting of the international contact group on Libya in Rome would discuss "legal instruments to allow the sale of oil products".

The meeting would also try to find ways of using assets owned by Gaddafi's regime that have been frozen around the world in order to aid the rebels and would discuss the thorny issue of arming the Libyan rebels, he said.

"We have condemned the violence of the regime in the streets, we have condemned the use of snipers in Tripoli and in the besieged cities.... We can't say this is not our problem," Frattini said.

Italy was weighing the possibility of sending "night-vision equipment, radars and technology to block communications," he said.

Next stop, France

Jalil for his part told reporters he would favour international ties "above all" with France, Italy and Qatar - the countries that have recognised Libya's opposition.

Soon afterwards, Paris announced that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is to host Jalil to discuss the country's transition to democracy. Sarkozy will meet the opposition leader at the Elysee Palace in Paris at 12am (2pm UAE time), a statement said.

Nato strikes

The UN refugee agency said meanwhile some 10,000 Libyans have fled in the last 10 days from the besieged Western Mountains region to Tunisia. "Unhcr is seeing a growing number of Libyan refugees arriving in Tunisia from Libya's Western Mountains regions," Andrej Mahecic, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said in Geneva.

Libya's official news agency Jana reported that Nato air strikes on Tuesday hit the Libyan capital Tripoli; Sirte, Muammar Gaddafi's home town; and the town of Aziziyah, south of the capital. There was no immediate indication of casualties or damage caused by the bombings.