The situation on Libya's border with Tunisia has attained crisis stage, as tens of thousands of foreigners flee unrest inside the country, the UN says.
Help workers appear unable to cope using the influx, say correspondents. Some 140,000 have gone to Tunisia and Egypt.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has told Western journalists he is cherished by his people and denied protests in Tripoli.
His interview arrived amid reviews that he is trying to regain manage of rebel places in western Libya.
Col Gaddafi is going through a enormous challenge to his 41-year rule, with protesters in manage of towns inside the east.
Witnesses said pro-Gaddafi forces attempted to retake the western metropolitan areas of Zawiya, Misrata and Nalut on Monday but have been repulsed by rebels aided by defecting army models.
The rebels said they'd killed 8 pro-Gaddafi militia, but there have been no opposition fatalities. There continues to be no term in the authorities on casualties.
You'll find fears in Zawiya the town may be attacked in the air, but the rebels remained defiant.
"We're not
here for energy, authority or money," they said in a concept aimed at Col Gaddafi.
"We are here for your lead to of flexibility along with the price we're willing to shell out is with our very own blood... It is victory or demise."
In other developments:
* The Red Cross is requesting access to western Libya, amid unconfirmed reviews of attacks on medical doctors and summary killings of individuals
* Austria freezes assets with the Libyan leadership worth one.2bn euros ($1.65bn; £1.02bn) as Germany freezes the bank account of one particular of Col Gaddafi's sons
* Libyan air power planes reportedly attacked ammunition depots inside the eastern towns of Ajdabiya and Rajma
* About 400 protesters gathered inside the Tripoli suburb of Tajoura on Monday - Gaddafi supporters attempted to disperse them by firing inside the air
* Reports say there have already been lengthy queues in Tripoli banks as people attempted to collect the 500 dinars (£250; $410) promised by the authorities in an attempt to quell the unrest
'Forgotten'
A spokeswoman for your UN Higher Commissioner for Refugees, Melissa Fleming, said 70,000-75,000 people have fled to Tunisia given that violence began in Libya on 20 February. A comparable amount have gone to Egypt, exactly where most have already been able to carry on their journeys onward.
"Our workers about the Libya-Tunisia border have told us this early morning the situation there's reaching crisis stage," she said, quoted by AFP news agency.
About two,000 people are crossing into Tunisia every single hour but as soon as in Tunisia several of them have nowhere to go. Yet another 20,000 are said to become backed up about the Libyan side.
Most are Egyptian, but there are also significant figures of Chinese and Bangladeshis.
The Egyptians are angry, complaining that they've been forgotten by their authorities, says the BBC's Jim Muir about the border.
Temperatures plummeted overnight and our correspondent observed the physique of a young Egyptian gentleman who had apparently died of chilly.
01 March 2011
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