NATO chief tries to repair cracks over Libya

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - 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 cease-fire 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.

Asked about Italy's cease-fire 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 says it 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. Gaddafi says NATO's real aim is to steal the country's plentiful oil.

The U.S., British and French leaders have said they will keep up the pressure until Gaddafi leaves power, but the rebels opposing him have been unable to break through his defences and advance on the capital.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said the Libyan leader's ability to hold out was being steadily warn down, so now was not the moment for a let-up in the pressure on him.

"Time is on our side, time is not on the side of Colonel Gaddafi," Cameron said on a visit to the Czech capital. "So we need to be patient and persistent."

NATO said it had delivered a major blow to Gaddafi's forces near Zlitan, a town about 170 km (105 miles) east of Tripoli where rebels are encircled by Gaddafi's forces.

The alliance said it had hit 13 armed vehicles, an armoured personnel carrier and a rocket launcher near the town on Wednesday. It did not say how it attacked the targets, but a spokesman said there had been gunfire from NATO warships off the coast near Zlitan.

NATO CRACKS

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 alluded to the civilian casualties in the audio recording broadcast late on Wednesday.

"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."

Libyan officials in Tripoli took reporters to the central Green Square where a crowd of around 200 people, most of them women waving green flags or carrying pictures of Gaddafi, gathered to demonstrate their support.

"We love our leader. We want him to stay in this country," said one woman, who gave her name as Budur.

There was though a note of discord. As the reporters were guided back to their bus by government minders, a man shouted out of his car window: "Gaddafi go down!"

FORCES STRETCHED

Time is now a crucial factor for both sides in the conflict, with unity in the NATO-led coalition likely to come under more strain and Gaddafi's ability to resist being steadily worn down by sanctions, air strikes and fighting with rebels.

In a sign that Gaddafi's military is being stretched, a Reuters photographer in Al Qalaa, which was seized earlier this month from pro-Gaddafi forces, saw about 50 navy servicemen being held prisoner in a police station.

They said their commanders told them they were being deployed to protect the region from attack by al Qaeda, and they were later captured by the rebels.

The conflict has effectively partitioned Libya. The eastern third around the city of Benghazi is in rebels hands while the West -- apart from some rebel enclaves -- is controlled by Gaddafi. There is almost no movement between the two.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had begun an operation to transfer people back home who had been trapped on the wrong side of the civil war divide.

It said a ship would take several hundred people from Tripoli to Benghazi, and about 110 people were due to travel in the other direction.

"Most of the people we are transferring are Libyans who were working away from their home towns or visiting relatives or friends when the conflict broke out. They are very eager to rejoin their families," said Paul Castella, head of the ICRC delegation in Tripoli.

(Additional reporting by John Irish in Paris, Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, David Brunnstrom in Brussels, Pedro DeCosta in Jamaica, Anis Mili in Al Qalaa and Jason Hovet in Prague; writing by Christian Lowe; editing by Philippa Fletcher)