Cairo/Tripoli - Families fled the key rebel-held city of Ajdabiya on Wednesday as opposition forces retreated and Moamer Gaddafi's counterattacks continued to push eastward, media and opposition websites reported.
The panic came as Gaddafi's military and armed groups continued their push towards Brega, according to Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera.
Just a few hundred kilometres of dusty roads and sand dunes lay between Brega and Ajdabiya.
Rebel forces also retreated from Bin Jawad as Libyan armed forces pushed forward to retake the strategic town. Gaddafi's forces also routed rebels from the nearby oil port of Ras Lanuf, pushing the frontline further eastward, according to reports.
In Europe, NATO said it had officially started taking over the command of military operations in Libya.
'NATO command is up and running,' a NATO official said. 'We received all the pledges we need.'
Canadian Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard is leading the NATO mission, code-named Unified Protector, from the alliance's maritime headquarters in Naples, Italy.
NATO had already been in charge of enforcing a United Nations-mandated no-fly zone over the North African country and patrolling an arms embargo in the Mediterranean.
Meanwhile, Libyan state-run news agency JANA said Gaddafi would sue any foreign company that signed contracts with the opposition's Interim Transitional National Council (ITNC), adding that such oil installations cannot be left to the management of 'armed gangs.'
The statement came after a number of oil ports had fallen under the control of opposition forces.
A dearth of armed weapons and military training on the part of the rebel fighters has all but nullified an earlier push to Sirte, Gaddafi's hometown, despite a number of defections from army units.
A newly-released Human Rights Watch report found that Gaddafi's forces planted dozens of land mines on the outskirts of the eastern city of Ajdabiya and Sirte.
With the international operation against Gaddafi's forces entering its 11th day, the coalition was finding it difficult to differentiate between the rebels and Gaddafi's plain-clothed armed men, many of whom both ride on the backs of trucks, according to Al Jazeera.
US President Barack Obama, meanwhile, said it was possible that the US would arm rebels fighting to overthrow Gaddafi. He was responding to appeals from the ITNC.
'I'm not ruling it out, but I'm also not ruling it in,' said Obama in an interview aired on NBC News.
However, Hesham Youssef, a senior official of the Arab League, said the League's reading of the UN no-fly zone resolution did not include arming the opposition.
'Our objective is to protect civilians and not to meddle into the Libyan affairs,' Youssef was quoted in Egypt's Al-Ahram Online as saying.
'A change of the regime in Libya is not our objective - nor is it our job,' he added.
Moscow, which abstained from voting on the UN Security Council no-fly zone, also signalled it would not be in favour of arming rebels.
'It is clear that there must be another, democratic, leadership,' Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. 'But the Libyans have to decide that for themselves, without any foreign meddling.'
The fighting continued to limit humanitarian access to many parts of Libya and shortages of medical supplies persisted in Misurata, the country's third-largest city.
An Egyptian Foreign Ministry official told the German Press Agency dpa that a few hundred Egyptian nationals continued to be stranded in Misurata, but that efforts to rescue them by sea had failed because Gaddafi's government could not guarantee safety at the city's main port.
Around 382,000 people have fled the country since the violence started earlier this month, according to the International Organization of Migration.
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