TRIPOLI - NATO's chief on Thursday slapped down a call from Italy for a suspension of hostilities in Libya and tried to reassure wavering members of the Western coalition that Muammar Gaddafi can be beaten. Italy's ceasefire call exposed the strain on the NATO alliance, nearly 14 weeks into a bombing campaign that has so far failed to dislodge Gaddafi but is causing mounting concerns about its cost and about civilian casualties. Gaddafi himself sounded a fresh note of defiance with an audio recording, broadcast on Libyan television, in which he called NATO states murderers of innocent civilians and vowed to avenge their deaths. Asked about Italy's ceasefire call, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a newspaper interview: "No, on the contrary. We shall continue and see it through to the end." "The allies are committed to making the necessary effort for a sustained operation," he told France's Le Figaro newspaper. "We will take the time needed until the military objective is reached: end all attacks against Libyan civilians, return armed forces to barracks and freedom of movement for humanitarian aid." NATO is operating under a United Nations mandate to protect civilians from Gaddafi's forces as he tries to crush an uprising against his 41-year rule in the oil-producing North African state. The US, British and French leaders have said they will keep up the pressure until Gaddafi leaves power, but the rebels opposing him are locked in a protracted stalemate with his troops. Rasmussen said it was no surprise that it was proving tough to break Libya's military and security apparatus. "We knew he had the military means and financial resources. We avoided a massacre and broke his war machine. NATO has damaged or destroyed 2,400 military targets," the newspaper quoted him as saying. "Today we are seeing opposition troops going on the offensive. I am satisfied with the progress." At the weekend, NATO acknowledged for the first time in the campaign that it may have caused multiple civilian casualties, when an air strike hit a house in Tripoli. That opened up cracks inside the alliance that had already been starting to appear because of the length of time the campaign had been under way without producing a decisive breakthrough. Gaddafi, a canny political operator who will be keen to exploit any rifts in NATO, alluded to the civilian casualties in the audio recording. "You said, 'we hit our targets with precision', you murderers!" he said. "One day we will respond to you likewise and your homes will be legitimate targets." Italy lies directly across the Mediterranean Sea from Libya and NATO relies heavily on its military airfields to launch air operations over Libya. In a sign of the increasing impact of the crisis on daily life, Libyan state media issued instructions that ordinary people should follow "to deal with the fuel shortage". They called on people to use public transport instead of cars, avoid using air conditioning when driving and stick to 90-100 kph (55-63 mph) as the ideal speed. They also asked Libyans to be patient when queueing at petrol stations. The rebel National Transitional Council got a further boost on Wednesday when China, the only veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council not to have urged Gaddafi to stand down, hosted its diplomatic chief for talks in Beijing. "China sees you as an important dialogue partner," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told Mahmoud Jibril, according to comments published on the Chinese Foreign Ministry's website (www.mfa.gov.cn). The statement, however, stopped short of aligning China with the 19 countries which have recognised the Council as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people. Action on the ground was inconclusive. At least three explosions were heard in Tripoli in the morning and again in the afternoon but it was not clear what had caused them.
