Gaddafi under pressure as death toll rises

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is fighting an increasingly bloody battle to hang on to power after anti-government protests against his 41-year rule struck the capital Tripoli.

Residents reported gunfire in parts of Tripoli and one political activist said warplanes had bombed the city.

"What we are witnessing today is unimaginable. Warplanes and helicopters are indiscriminately bombing one area after another. There are many, many dead," Adel Mohamed Saleh said in a live broadcast on Al Jazeera television. "Anyone who moves, even if they are in their car they will hit you."

Two Libyan fighter jets landed in Malta, their pilots defecting after they had been ordered to bomb protesters, Maltese government officials said.

Al Jazeera television quoted medical sources as saying 61 people had been killed in the latest protests in Tripoli.

Human Rights Watch said at least 233 people had been killed in five days of violence, but opposition groups put the figure much higher.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon held an extensive discussion with Gaddafi on Monday, condemned the escalating violence in Libya and told him it "must stop immediately," according to a UN spokesman.

But as clashes continued across the country, rumours began to circulate that Colonel Gaddafi may have fled to Venezuela.

British foreign secretary William Hague fuelled the speculation saying: "About whether Col. Gaddafi, is in Venezuela, I have no information that says he is although I have seen some information that suggests he is on his way there."

Libya's deputy envoy to the UN called on Colonel Gaddafi to step down, and accused his government of genocide.

Ibrahim Dabbashi said that if the 68-year-old leader did not relinquish power, "the Libyan people will get rid of him".