• Fighting continues near Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte
• Woman who alleged rape facing criminal charges
Cameron says he prosposes a "contact group" which will keep up pressure on Gaddafi.
There are people suffering teribly under Gaddafi's rule as this meeting goes on, Cameron says. Our message to them is that there are better days to come.
"A new beginning for Libya is within their grasp, and we must help them to seize it."
Food and medical supplies are getting in, but "we need to redouble our efforts". The whole international community needs to work together.
Cameron says when the fighting is over, we need to repair the hospitals and the "mosques and minarets" smashed by Gaddafi".
The Libyan people require three things from us, he says.
The continued enforcement of UN security council resolution 1973. Cameron says the action taken 12 days ago saved Benghazi and "averted a massacre".
But, Cameron says, people in Misrata continue to suffer – under attack from both land and sea. Gaddafi is denying people food and water, while snipers roam the town.
"That is why there has been widespread support" from Misrata for the action we are taking, he says.
Richard says "Cumberland is heading for home and the scrapheap".
"It's the repeating pattern that we have seen in the past with Gaddafi's forces, which is the rebels advance in a vacuum created by air strikes, and then they over extend themselves, are not able to defend themselves, and then what happens is that Gaddafi's forces bring up artillery, their tanks, and they just lay down a line of explosive shells that force the rebels back and the rebels retreat, usually almost in panic."
Chris says the rebels are still in Bin Jawad, and are defending it, "but only just". He says the rebels don't have the weapons to defend themselves from Gaddafi's heavy artillery and tanks. Apologies for the bad line.
Chris's report tallies with a New York Times article yesterday, which said the US military had warned that the rebels' rapid advances could quickly be reversed without continued coalition air support, in a statement that is apparently being proven correct.
"The regime still vastly overmatches opposition forces militarily," the NYT quoted Gen Carter F. Ham as saying.
"The regime possesses the capability to roll them back very quickly. Coalition air power is the major reason that has not happened."
As well as Misrata, problems are evidently mounting elsewhere.
The most visible sign of trouble is the long queues at petrol stations. On the 460 kilometres journey from Tripoli to Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte on Monday every petrol station was either closed or had queues stretching hundreds of yards. Traffic jams in the capital are caused by motorists waiting to fill up their tanks.
The problem is a combination of drastically reduced production, poor distribution and panic buying. Oil production is down to about one quarter of pre-crisis levels partly because of the flight of foreign workers. The refinery at Zawiya west of Tripoli was damaged in the fighting and while the one at Ras Lanuf in the east is in rebel hands. Italian tankers bringing refined petroleum have reportedly been turned back.
"Petrol is very cheap," said Ahmed, a twenty-something taxi driver, negotiating the traffic outside Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya barracks. "But now the shortage is getting really serious." Libyans also say they are short of cooking gas.
The head of the Libyan ports authority complained this week that some imports of food and medicine have been stopped even though they are not subject to an embargo by the UN security council.
Another highly visible problem is bread, with queues everywhere. The issue here is one of labour, with the low paid Egyptians and Tunisians who do many menial jobs spurned by Libyans having fled the country when the uprising began in the third week of February. There is some evidence of shortages of cooking oil and sugar.
Other sectors have been similarly affected by the exit of foreign labourers. The port in Sirte, Muammar Gaddafi's home town, is jammed with fishing boats which have been idle since their Egyptian and Tunisian crews fled.
Speaking on Good Morning America, when asked about whether the US had ruled out arming the rebels fighting to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, she said: "We have not made that decision, but we've not certainly ruled that out."
This is in contrast to what Nato secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen told CNN yesterday.
He said that "the UN mandate authorises the enforcement of an arms embargo" and Nato has decided to participate.
"We are not in Libya to arm people, but to protect people," he said.
• More than 40 foreign ministers are meeting in London this afternoon to discuss the situation in Libya. It will focus on co-ordinating assistance in the face of a possible humanitarian disaster and building a unified international front in condemnation of the Gaddafi regime and in support of Nato-led military action in Libya. This morning William Hague met with Mahmoud Jibril, special envoy for the rebels' interim national council.
• Iman al-Obeidi, the Libyan woman who broke into a government-controlled Tripoli hotel to allege rape against men close to Gaddafi's regime, is facing criminal charges. Government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said Obeidi was now facing charges brought by some of the 15 men she claimed on Saturday had detained, beaten and raped her. It is not known whether she is still in custody – yesterday her parents claimed she was being detained at Gaddafi's Tripoli compound.
• Gaddafi's forces have attacked rebel fighters east of the Libyan leader's home town of Sirte prompting a panicked, chaotic retreat to the town of Bin Jawad. Reuters said Gaddafi's forces used a "hail of machinegun and rocket fire" to drive the rebels back. Yesterday Ian Black reported from Sirte that Gaddafi's troops there appeared to be switching to lighter weaponry to make themselves less of a target to coalition air strikes.
AP's report on the same incident called it a "panicked scramble away from the front lines".
Mussa Ibrahim said Obeidi was now facing charges brought by some of the 15 men she claimed on Saturday had detained, beaten and raped her. It was not known whether she was still in custody. Previous official statements about her have proved to be incorrect. Ibrahim has described Obeidi as drunk and mentally disturbed.
"It's a legal case," Ibrahim told reporters in Tripoli. "The boys who she accused of rape are making a case against her because it's a grave offence to accuse someone of a sexual crime." Before these latest comments he had said that her only offence was entering the Tripoli compound where large numbers of foreign journalists covering the Libyan crisis are staying at a luxury hotel-cum media centre.
Ibrahim expressed frustration at repeated questions about the Obeidi case when Libya is facing daily air strikes in which civilians are being killed and injured.
Under "international organisations", we have....
• Secretary General of the United Nations His Excellency Ban Ki Moon
• Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference His Excellency Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu
• Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Anders Fogh Rasmussen
• High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Baroness Ashton of Upholland
• United Nations Special Envoy for Libya Abdelilah Mohamed Al Khatib
• Arab League Ambassador Hesham Youssef
The Foreign Office also revealed the huge number of countries sending foreign ministers...
Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Rep, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Morrocco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, UAE, USA
Sarah Palin told Fox News that it was "a profoundly disappointing speech because it proved that the 'Obama Doctrine' is still full of chaos and questions".
She added: "another big question that needs to be asked is: Are we at war? I haven't heard the president say that we are at war."
This is a point that the Associated Press's national security writer Anne Gearan also picks up on.
"[T]he war he described Monday doesn't quite match the fight the United States is in," she writes.
It also doesn't line up with the conflict Obama himself had seemed to presage, when he expressly called for [Gaddafi's] overthrow or resignation.
Obama's stated goals stop well short of that. And although Obama talked of the risks of a long war, he did not say just when or on what terms the United States would leave Libya.
Obama never directly mentioned the Libyan rebels seeking [Gaddafi's] overthrow, even though the heavy US-led firepower trained on [his] forces has allowed those rebels to regain momentum and push toward [Gaddafi's] territory.
Meanwhile former Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain called the speech a "strong defence of our military action in Libya".
There's a good round up of other reaction on The Caucas blog of the New York Times.
A TV still allegedly shows Gaddafi's son Khamis (left), greeting crowd outside his residence in Tripoli, to quash rumours of his death Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
The images may be an attempt to prove Khamis – commander of the Khamis brigade of highly trained soldiers in Libya – is still alive, following reports of his death last week.
Earlier we heard the Foreign Office announce that William Hague met with Jibril this morning.
Meanwhile, the US will send an envoy to Libya to continue discussions with the rebel council however a US official said the trip does not constitute formal recognition of the opposition.
"Chris Stevens, who was until recently the deputy chief of mission at the now-shuttered US Embassy in Tripoli, will make the trip in the coming days," AP said.
More from Ian shortly.
This gives the Libyan leader a few options worldwide – neither the United States or Russia are fully signed up to the nine-year-old body – but Italy's foreign minister, Franco Frattini, says hospitality is most likely to come from an African country. None have publicly extended an invitation to Gaddafi and the list of possible candidates may feature some destinations that would be less desirable to him than others, but with 22 out of a possible 54 nations lying outside ICC jurisdiction, there clearly are options.
Africa's non-ICC countries include: Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Equatorial New Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Sao Tome, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Togo, Tunisia, Zimbabwe.
Hague said he had spoken to Jabril "on several occasions" over the past week, and the special envoy had come to London at Hague's request. The apparently relaxed discussion marks a change in tack for for the foreign secretary, who previously approved the botched plan to send a team of armed diplomats and SAS soldiers into eastern Libya in an effort to make contact with anti-Gaddafi rebels.
The foreign secretary described the national council – or Libyan interim transitional national council, to give it its full title – as an an "important and legitimate political interlocutor".
He added: "The UK is committed to strengthening our contacts with a wide range of members of the Libyan opposition who are working to create a Libya where the legitimate aspirations of its people can be met."
We discussed the current political and humanitarian situation in Libya. We agreed on the absolute importance of protecting and safeguarding civilians in Libya. We considered how best the UK as well as other attendees at today's London conference can best support the Libyan people, and I asked for Mr Jabril's assessment of the humanitarian needs in Libya and priorities for international assistance.
A Libyan opposition leader said that Qatar had also agreed to sell oil on its behalf in international markets – although Qatari officials were on Monday unavailable to comment on any such deal. But Washington made clear that opposition oil sales need not be subject to the sanctions imposed on Libya.
Rebels have pledged to increase the production of oil, which has fallen since the conflict in Libya began. The FT said that Doha, the capital of Qatar, was already provided an economic lifeline to the rebels by supplying them with petrol, diesel and cooking gas.
AP reported that Koussa made a "private visit" to Tunisia late last night. Seperately al-Jazeera's Nazanine Moshiri, reporting from Tunisia, said Koussa might be trying to head to Italy.
In TV address, the US president says military intervention in Libya has prevented Muammar Gaddafi from carrying out a massacre in Benghazi.
The Syrian president is facing the biggest challenge to his 11-year rule as anti-government protests that began in a southern city exploded across several Syrian cities Friday. Security forces launched a swift crackdown, opening fire in at least six locations around the country including the capital, Damascus, and the country's main port of Latakia.
At least 61 people have been killed since March 18, according to Human Rights Watch.
The Syrians in Tuesday's "loyalty to the nation" march carried flags and pictures of Assad.
Assad is due to give a speech today offering concessions to the protesters. We'll have more from Syria later.
Ian says even if Sirte falls – "and it is a very, very big if" – there are then some 270 miles from there to Tripoli.
"The idea that Gaddafi's forces would simply collapse in the face of a rebel advance is a delusion," Ian said, in response to a rebel fighter who stated yesterday that Gaddafi will be gone "before the week ends".
"Where [Gaddafi] goes if he goes is up to him to determine," Hague said – opening the door for Gaddafi to flee to a country which does not recognise the International Criminal Court.
"I'm not going to choose [Gaddafi's] retirement home," the foreign secretary said.
Last night efforts appeared to be under way to offer Muammar Gaddafi a way of escape from Libya, with Italy saying it was trying to organise an African haven for him, and the US signalling it would not try to stop the dictator from fleeing.
AFP reported that in the letter, Gaddafi likened the Nato-led air strikes to military campaigns launched by Adolf Hitler during World War II.
• Paul Harris: Barack Obama has addressed the American people on TV and said that military intervention by America had prevented a massacre in Libya. The US president also called on those people still loyal to Muammar Gaddafi to desert him, and said that the end of the Libyan leader's rule was inevitable. "We will deny the regime arms, cut off its supply of cash, assist the opposition, and work with other nations to hasten the day when Gaddafi leaves power," Obama said. "It may not happen overnight, as a badly weakened Gaddafi tries desperately to hang on to power. But it should be clear to those around Gadaffi, and to every Libyan, that history is not on his side."
• Ian Black: Libya's army is pouring reinforcements into Muammar Gaddafi's strategic hometown of Sirte against rebels advancing from the east under cover of UN-mandated air strikes. Units of regular soldiers in jeeps mounted with heavy machine guns were driving towards the town on Monday as the frontline moved ominously closer to a key regime stronghold for what could turn out to be the decisive battle of the war. Despite some reports to the contrary, Sirte remains firmly in government hands and its people defiant. If the rebels took the city it would be a severe blow, weakening Gaddafi's position in the centre of Libya and the road would be open for an advance on Tripoli 280 miles away.
• Julian Borger and Richard Norton-Taylor: An international conference in London – including the UN, Arab states, the African Union, and more than 40 foreign ministers – will meet this morning. It will focus on co-ordinating assistance in the face of a possible humanitarian disaster and building a unified international front in condemnation of the Gaddafi regime and in support of Nato-led military action in Libya.
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