Gadhafi Vows 'Decisive Battle' as U.N. Debates Action

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said his forces would fight a "decisive battle" Thursday, as Washington added its voice to efforts at the U.N. Security Council to impose a no-fly zone.

Gadhafi's latest comments came after his forces pressed rebels in the west on Wednesday and threatened their eastern bastion of Benghazi, despite calls from U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon for an immediate ceasefire.

"The battle starts today (Wednesday) at Misrata and tomorrow, that will be the decisive battle," Gadhafi was quoted as saying by state television, referring to Libya's third city, which has a population of half a million.

"From this evening, you are going to be called to take up arms and tomorrow you will take part in the battle," he added in an address to a group of young people from Misrata, according to the television report.

Gadhafi urged his audience "not to leave Misrata hostage in the hands of a handful of madmen."

A rebel spokesman in Misrata, which lies 150 kilometers from the capital Tripoli, said Wednesday that opposition forces had beaten back an attack by Gadhafi loyalists, but that four people were killed and 10 wounded.

In Zintan, meanwhile, the first western town to go over to the opposition, a witness said "things were starting" there.

And over to the east, witnesses in Ajdabiya, the gateway to Benghazi, said fighting was still under way there. Government sources continued to insist that it had fallen on Tuesday.

A doctor told Agence France Presse by telephone that fighting was still raging on Wednesday in and around Ajdabiya, which also guards the road to Tobruk and the Egyptian border in the rebel-held east.

"We received four bodies today, all rebel fighters," Abdelkarim Mohammed said, adding that 22 dead, mainly civilians killed by artillery or air strikes, had been brought in on Tuesday.

As talks resumed in the divided U.N. Security Council, Ban spokesman Martin Nesirky said the secretary general was "gravely concerned" about signs that Gadhafi was preparing to attack Benghazi.

"A campaign to bombard such an urban centre would massively place civilian lives at risk," he said.

"The secretary general is urging all parties in this conflict to accept an immediate ceasefire...," he added.

The Red Cross announced Wednesday it was moving its staff in Benghazi eastwards to Tobruk until security improved, handing food and other relief provisions to the local Red Crescent society.

A day earlier, Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders, MSF) pulled its staff out of Benghazi.

In Cairo on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: "We want to do what we can to protect innocent Libyans against the marauders let loose by the Gadhafi regime."

Hours later, at the United Nations in New York, the U.S. position appeared to have hardened against Gadhafi.

Washington joined Britain and France in pressing for a Security Council vote Thursday on a no-fly zone to halt Gadhafi's attacks.

Britain, France and Lebanon, on behalf of the Arab League, have been seeking to overcome resistance to a no-fly zone.

A no-fly zone would amount to military action and ground forces could be needed as a follow up if it failed.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has requested more information from Arab states on how a no-fly zone would be policed.

China, which like Russia wields a veto on the Security Council, has also expressed reservations about any intervention.

The two-part draft resolution calls for a no-fly zone and toughened sanctions against the Gadhafi regime, according to diplomats at the United Nations, which says the conflict has cost more than 1,000 lives.

In New York, deputy Libyan U.N. ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi warned that "in the coming hours we will see a real genocide if the international community does not act quickly."