20110329
reuters

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi's better armed and organised troops reversed the westward charge of rebels and world powers meeting in London piled pressure on the Libyan leader to end his 41-year rule.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, opening the London conference, accused Libyan troops of "murderous attacks", while U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said military strikes would press on until Gaddafi loyalists ceased violence.

"All of us must continue to increase the pressure on and deepen the isolation of the Gaddafi regime through other means as well," Clinton said after the London talks finished.

"This includes a unified front of political and diplomatic pressure that makes clear to Gaddafi that he must go," she said.

The United States is scaling back to a "supporting role" to let NATO take full command from U.S. forces on Wednesday, but air strikes by U.S., French and British planes remain key to smashing Gaddafi's armour and facilitating rebel advances.

It took five days of allied air strikes to pulverise Libyan government tanks around the town of Ajdabiyah before Gaddafi's troops fled and the rebels rushed in and began their 300-km (200-mile), two-day dash across the desert to within 80 km (50 miles) of the Gaddafi loyalist stronghold of Sirte.

But the rebel pick-up truck cavalcade was first ambushed, then outflanked by Gaddafi troops. The advance stopped and government forces retook the small town of Nawfaliyah, 120 km (75 miles) east of Sirte.

"The Gaddafi guys hit us with Grads (rockets) and they came round our flanks," Ashraf Mohammed, a 28-year-old rebel wearing a bandolier of bullets, told a Reuters reporter at the front.