By Sherine El Madany
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton pledged support for rebels in east Libya on Sunday, making the most senior visit to the area by a foreign official since the revolt against Muammar Gaddafi began.
"I saw the posters on the way from the airport to here saying 'We have a dream'," Ashton said in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. "This support is not just for now, but for the future and as long as the people of this country wish us here."
France, Britain and other European states have backed Libya's poorly trained and equipped rebels against a government that has held onto power for more than four decades.
French planes were the first to bomb Gaddafi's forces in March after the United Nations voted to allow intervention to protect civilians.
The air strikes, now led by NATO, were launched as Gaddafi's troops advanced on Benghazi after the Libyan leader vowed "no mercy, no pity."
Several Libyans surrounded her in the city that was the epicentre of the revolt that erupted in mid-February, flashing "V-for-Victory" signs. One man nearby said: "Every Libyan is very happy."
Visiting to open a representative office for the EU, she said she discussed support for health, education, civil society, border management and security reform.
"The Libyan people appreciate this visit and appreciate the European Union for supporting the revolution since its beginning," the head of the Benghazi-based National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, said of Ashton.
MISTATA SCARRED
In the rebel-held port city of Misrata in western Libya, residents also hailed the West for intervening, their city scarred and from weeks of street fighting and bombardment by shells and rockets and damaged shops spilling their meagre wares onto the streets.
Rebels say they have pushed Gaddafi's forces 25 km (15 miles) from the centre after weeks of street fighting and bombardment. Government forces shelled residential areas of Misrata on Saturday, according to rebels.
"If God hadn't brought us NATO, they would have burnt us all," said Amran Zoufrey, 84. "Even in the Second World War, when I was young, we didn't have this destruction. Now I wonder when the next rocket will come and kill me."
Gutted restaurants were heaped with tables and chairs amid shattered glass. A clock atop a tower in a central square had stopped at 7.45. The turret of a dismembered tank was leaning upright against the entrance to a watch shop.
"It's a catastrophe but we have hope. We've liberated our city," said Ali el-Houti, a 42-year-old civil servant, as he walked through the street.
The sound of battle rumbled far in the distance. Fighting between the rebels and the Libyan leader's better-equipped forces has continued but the east-west frontline is now quieter although there are still sporadic clashes.
The frontline has not shifted for weeks.
CLASHES
South of Benghazi, at least one rebel was killed late on Saturday when rebels clashed with forces loyal to Gaddafi between rebel-held Ajdabiyah and Brega, an oil town to the west, a doctor said.
The doctor in Benghazi said four were wounded in the clash and said the funeral of the rebel would take place on Sunday.
The fighting erupted late on Saturday around Arbaein checkpoint, 40 km (25 miles) west of Ajdabiyah.
NATO staged its latest air strike near Gaddafi's compound in Tripoli late on Saturday.
Libyan officials said the alliance had attacked close to Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah complex. Reuters Television pictures showed a column of smoke rising over the capital.
There was no immediate word on what the target of the attack was and reporters escorted by Libyan officials were unable to get close to the site.
Libyans armed with guns and a knife stormed a bus carrying foreign journalists on Saturday and a soldier fired volleys of gunfire into the air to disperse the crowd, a Reuters journalist on the bus said.
No one was hurt in the attack but it reflected anger in government-controlled territory over severe petrol shortages, NATO air strikes and government and state media reports that foreign journalists misrepresent the news.
(Additional reporting by Mohammed Abbas in Misrata and Joseph Logan in Tripoli; Writing by Adam Tanner in Rabat; Editing by Alison Williams)
