Battle on for control of Gaddafi birthplace

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Fighters loyal to Libya's interim government are battling for full control of Sirte, Muammar Gaddafi's birthplace where the ousted despot's diehards are holed up inside a conference centre.

A senior US defence official said, meanwhile, that NATO chiefs believe the fugitive former Libyan leader no longer commands his loyalists who are on the verge of defeat.

But after launching what they called a final assault on Sirte with a barrage of rocket and artillery fire, the National Transitional Council forces still faced stiff resistance late yesterday around the Ouagadougou conference centre.

"We are surrounding them in the centre of the city in an area of just a few square kilometres (miles)," NTC commander Nasser Abu Zian said.

There were also particularly heavy clashes around and inside the university, near the city centre, and in the Mauritanian Quarter, said an AFP correspondent.

Following the ferocious dawn artillery and rocket barrage, hundreds of fighters tried to enter Sirte in pick-ups mounted with anti-aircraft and machineguns.

As they advanced into the city, the NTC fighters came under sustained mortar, machinegun and sniper fire but took a 700-home complex west of the centre, they said.

Plumes of black smoke could be seen billowing from several parts of the city as the Ouagadougou centre was constantly shelled by 106 mm cannon and anti-aircraft guns.