Muammar Gaddafi was a hunted man on Monday as loyal remnants of his forces made a last-ditch stand in the capital and world leaders embraced the fractious Libyan rebels as new masters of the oil-rich North African state.

Nearly 48 hours after a pincer thrust on Tripoli by the irregular rebel armies, launched in tandem with an uprising in the city, Gaddafi's tanks and sharpshooters appeared to hold only small areas, including his Bab al-Aziziya headquarters.

Civilians, who mobbed the streets late on Sunday to cheer the end of dictatorship, stayed indoors as gunfire crackled.

Gaddafi's prime minister showed up in Tunisia. State television went off the air and rebels said they had seized its transmitters.

More Libyan embassies abroad hoisted the rebel flag.

Western powers who deployed air power in support of various rebel groups in different regions, urged the 'Brother Leader' to accept his 42 years of absolute power were over, and to end the bloodshed after six months of civil war that has ebbed and flowed erratically across the sparsely populated desert nation.

President Barack Obama said: "Muammar Gaddafi and his regime need to recognize that their rule has come to an end."

Egypt, whose Arab Spring revolt inspired its neighbors, abandoned its caution and recognised the rebel government.

But after a defiant audio address on Sunday, no more was heard from Gaddafi. Various officials said they did not know where he was.

Sons detained

Two of Gaddafi's sons were detained, including Saif al-Islam who has been indicted with his father for crimes against humanity. Two other sons, Khamis and Mutassim, were reported by Arab media to be with those still fighting.

Gaddafi still in Libya?

The Pentagon believes the former dictator has not fled the country, a US military spokesman said on Monday.

It's 'probably fair to stay that we believe he's still in the country', spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan told reporters.

"We do not have information that he's left the country."

Amid speculation about a possible international peacekeeping mission, Lapan ruled out the deployment of any US ground troops as part of a UN or NATO post-Gaddafi peacekeeping force.

"There will not be US boots on the ground," he said.

Escape to South Africa?

South Africa, a leading power on the continent to which Gaddafi devoted much of Libya's wealth and influence, has denied sending a plane for Gaddafi and rejected claims that it was planning to shelter a leader who has been indicted for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Popular uprising

Civilians had flocked late on Sunday to Green Square, long the showpiece of the leader's personality cult, waving rebel flags. Some said they would rename it Martyrs' Square.

But on Monday, a Reuters correspondent with rebels moving in from the west watched commanders of the irregular force try to hold their men back from rushing ahead in the city, insisting they check buildings methodically for snipers.

It was slow work and there will little sign of coordination between rebel units. The all-green flags of the Gaddafi government were still hanging in many streets - an indication that rebels did not feel safe enough to rip them down.

"We just arrived and our priority is to secure the city," said Hisham Bourajad, a commander of what he described as the Tripoli Revolutionary Brigade as his force probed forward.

Only five months ago, Gaddafi's forces were set to crush the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. He warned then that there would be 'no mercy, no pity' for his opponents.