A bombing blitz which NATO insists was not aimed at Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has rocked Tripoli.
Correspondents say the bombardment lasted roughly three hours and was unusually heavy.
Targets near Colonel Gaddafi's compound were reportedly hit.
Earlier, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said time was running out for Colonel Gaddafi.
But Brigadier General Claudio Gabellini denied the aim of the raid had been to kill the Libyan leader.
Colonel Gaddafi survived a similar NATO bombing on 1 May in Tripoli, which killed one of his sons, Seif al-Arab, and three of his grandchildren.
The United Nations said on Monday that nearly 750,000 people have fled Libya since Colonel Gaddafi's forces began an offensive against anti-government demonstrators in mid-February.
