* Opposition forces 60 miles from dictator's home town Sirte
* Government announces ceasefire in Misrata
* RAF Tornados bomb ammunition dumps this morning
* Russia says air strikes go beyond UN mandate
* Around 1,500 migrants land in Italy in first wave of refugees
Dramatic images today showed the rebel advance up the coast of Libya, as opposition forces closed in on Colonel Gaddafi's hometown.
The rebels have fought their way to within 60 miles of Sirte, where the dictator was born, and were locked in a battle with government forces near the town of Bin Jawad.
The images show opposition forces firing missiles at government troops as smoke billows across the battlefield.
They have made a lightning advance west from their stronghold in Benghazi over the past few days, aided by international air strikes, and have now recovered all the territory lost in a pre-no-fly-zone retreat earlier this month.
In the west, Gaddafi's forces announced a cease fire in the town of Misrata this afternoon. The dictator's forces have been shelling the rebel-held city over the past days, but have also been hit hard by international air strikes.
RAF Tornados bombed ammunition dumps in the Sabah region early this morning, using Storm Shadow missiles to blow up bunkers housing ammunition intended for the forces attacking Misrata
Re-taken: Rebels celebrate in the town of Ras Lanuf. They said they would push on soon towards Gaddafi's stronghold of Sirte
The MoD's Major General John Lorimer said: 'Following the retreat of Colonel Gaddafi's forces from most of the coastal towns east of Sirte, RAF Tornados have joined other coalition aircraft patrolling over Misrata where, despite significant losses as a result of air strikes, the regime continues to mount attacks on the town.
He spoke after the Russian government accused the international coalition of going beyond its UN mandate and taking sides in a civil war.
Foreign Secretary Sergey Lavrov said: 'We consider that intervention by the coalition in what is essentially an internal civil war is not sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council resolution.'
Meanwhile, the rebel advance in the east is meeting stiffening resistance as it approaches Sirte.
'Sirte will not be easy to take,' said General Hamdi Hassi, a rebel commander at Bin Jawwad. 'Now because of NATO strikes on (the government's) heavy weapons, we're almost fighting with the same weapons, only we have Grad rockets now and they don't.'
Libya's rebels have recovered hundreds of miles of flat, uninhabited territory at record speeds after Gaddafi's forces were forced to pull back by international air strikes.
Hassi said there was fighting now just outside the small hamlet of Nafouliya, 60 miles from Sirte, and scouting parties had found the road ahead to be heavily mined.
He added that the current rebel strategy was to combine military assault with an attempt to win over some of the local tribes loyal to Gaddafi over to their side.
'There's Gaddafi and then there's circles around him of supporters, each circle is slowly peeling off and disappearing,' Hassi said. 'If they rise up it would make our job easier.'
Sirte will not be easy to take,' said General Hamdi Hassi, a rebel commander at Bin Jawwad. 'Now because of NATO strikes on (the government's) heavy weapons, we're almost fighting with the same weapons, only we have Grad rockets now and they don't.'
Libya's rebels have recovered hundreds of miles of flat, uninhabited territory at record speeds after Gaddafi's forces were forced to pull back by international air strikes.
Hassi said there was fighting now just outside the small hamlet of Nafouliya, 60 miles from Sirte, and scouting parties had found the road ahead to be heavily mined.
He added that the current rebel strategy was to combine military assault with an attempt to win over some of the local tribes loyal to Gaddafi over to their side.
'There's Gaddafi and then there's circles around him of supporters, each circle is slowly peeling off and disappearing,' Hassi said. 'If they rise up it would make our job easier.'
Witnesses in Sirte reported there had been air strikes on Sunday night before and again early on Monday morning, but the town was quiet, and dozens of fighters loyal to Gaddafi could be seen roaming the streets.
Moving quickly westward, the advance retraced their steps in the first rebel march toward the capital.
But this time, the world's most powerful air forces have eased the way by pounding Gaddafi's military assets for the past week.
As the fighting continued the first wave of refugees from Libya arrived in Italy. Three boats carrying around 1,000 migrants docked in Siciliy and hundreds more are said to be on their way.
'There are no more controls on the Libyan coast now. Thousands are leaving,' a 26-year-old Eritrean woman rescued from one of the boats said.
Sirte is strategically located about halfway between the rebel-held east and the Gaddafi-controlled west along the Mediterranean coast. It is a centre of support for Gaddafi and is expected to be difficult for rebels to take.
West of Sirte is the embattled city of Misrata, the sole place in rebel hands in the country's west. Residents reported fighting between rebels and Gaddafi loyalists who fired from tanks on residential areas.
Rida al-Montasser, of the media committee of Misrata, said that nine young men were killed and 23 others wounded when Gaddafi brigades shelled their position in the northwestern part of the city on Sunday night. He also said that the port was bombed.
The Libyan state news agency also reported that there had been air strikes against the southern town of Sabha, which remains strongly loyal to Gaddafi and is a major transit point for ethnic Tuareg fighters from Mali and Niger fighting for the government.
JANA said the strikes destroyed a number of houses, though past strikes on Sabha, 385 miles south of Tripoli, targeted the airport and the flow of foreign fighters reinforcing the regime.
The rebels took back two key oil complexes along the coastal highway and promised to quickly restart Libya's stalled oil exports, prompting a slight drop in the soaring price of crude oil to around $105 a barrel.
In Washington, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said he could not offer a timetable for how long the Libya operation could last, as the Obama administration tried to bolster its case for bringing the United States into another war in the Muslim world.
The U.N. Security Council authorised the operation to protect Libyan civilians after Gaddafi launched attacks against anti-government protesters who demanded that he step down after nearly 42 years in power. The air strikes have crippled Gaddafi's forces, allowing rebels to advance less than two weeks after they had seemed at the brink of defeat.
The assault on Sirte, where most civilians are believed to support Gaddafi, however, potentially represents an expansion of the international mission to being more directly involved with regime change.
'This is the objective of the coalition now, it is not to protect civilians because now they are directly fighting against the armed forces,' Khaled Kaim, the deputy foreign minister, said in the capital, Tripoli. 'They are trying to push the country to the brink of a civil war.'
Turkey, meanwhile, has confirmed that even as rebel forces advance on Sirte it has been working with the government and the opposition to set up a ceasefire.
'We are one of the very few countries that are speaking to both sides,' Foreign Ministry Spokesman Selcuk Unal said, without confirming whether Turkey had offered to act as mediator.
Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also told reporters his country will take over the running of the airport in Benghazi to facilitate the transport of humanitarian aid to Libya. He did not say when, however.
Tripoli was also hit with air strikes again last night , with at least four explosions and heavy anti-aircraft gunfire reverberating through the capital.
Libyan state TV claimed in a news flash that both 'civilian and military areas' in Tripoli had been hit by the 'crusader, colonialist aggressors'.
Some suspect Gaddafi is withdrawing his forces from the east of the country to stage a last stand in the west. It was reported that government military vehicles were fleeing Sirte as the pro-democracy army threatened to bear down.
The Gaddafi regime on Saturday acknowledged the air strikes had forced its troops to retreat and accused international forces of choosing sides.
'This is the objective of the coalition now, it is not to protect civilians because now they are directly fighting against the armed forces,' Khaled Kaim, the deputy foreign minister, said in the capital, Tripoli.
'They are trying to push the country to the brink of a civil war.'
Gaddafi himself remained elusive at the weekend, with a government spokesman suggesting he is moving around Libya to keep his location secret. However, a video shown on state TV claimed to show a car carrying Gaddafi surrounded by adoring crowds.
A spokesman said: 'He is leading the battle. He is leading the nation forward from anywhere in the country.
'He has many offices, many places around Libya. I assure you he is leading the nation at this very moment and he is in continuous communication with everyone around the country.'
One resident in Misrata said 115 people had been killed in the city in a week and that snipers were still shooting people from rooftops.
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