Libya: Rebels delighted to see helicopters arrive

"Good," was his assessment. "We have survived for more than 70 days of the siege. The Apaches can help us."

Misrata's battered streets are alive with speculation about when the British Apaches and French Tiger attack helicopters will make their appearance.

Footage from Arabic news channel al-Jazeera of what appear to be British special forces near the front-line positions at Dafniya have heightened speculation that a major attack is now imminent.

Any lingering hopes that a diplomatic way out of the war could be found collapsed after South African president Jacob Zuma left Tripoli on Monday having failed to secure an undertaking for Col Muammar Gaddafi to step down.

Instead, Gaddafi has offered Nato an immediate ceasefire with the promise of talks on the future shape of Libya, something dismissed out of hand by the military alliance and the rebel National Transitional Council as an attempt to buy time.

Certainly nobody in Misrata is buying Col Gaddafi's offer, not least because yesterday started with a furious bombardment of outlying suburbs with Grad rockets.

"He has said that (the ceasefire offer] too many times in Misrata, too many times he has promised to stop fighting," said Mr Mohammed. "Then the Grad rockets fall again."

Military checkpoints in the town are denuded of men as fighters move to the front, and commanders say they have orders, transmitted through Nato, for their units not to cross "red lines", to avoid the risk of being killed by friendly fire.

The city airport meanwhile is closed and ringed by rebel troops, prompting speculation that Nato may want to use it as a forward base for helicopters now aboard warships on the Mediterranean, or possibly as an emergency landing zone for the helicopters if they are hit by ground fire.

Triggering further peculation of quick deployment were comments from Paris by France's defence minister Gerard Longuet, who refused to say when attack helicopters might take to the skies, but added "in any case, very rapidly."

Nato and the rebel National Transitional Council in Benghazi dismissed out of hand Col Gaddafi's offer of a ceasefire and peace talks which emerged after meeting on Monday with president Zuma in Tripoli.

"Col Gaddafi called for an end to the bombings to enable a Libyan dialogue," Mr Zuma's office said in a statement yesterday. "He emphasised that he was not prepared to leave his country, despite the difficulties."

Mr Zuma also said Gaddafi's personal safety "is a concern" - a reference to Nato strikes which have repeatedly hit the Libyan leader's Bab al-Aziziyah compound in Tripoli and other locations used by the Libyan leader and his family.

Nato, now backed by Russia, has demanded Col Gaddafi's immediate resignation as the price for stopping the bombardment, and diplomats fear his counter-offer is designed to buy time to re-organise his battered forces.

Rebel commanders say they believe that the nine brigades of the Khamis Jaffa, a corps-sized unit controlled by Col Gaddafi's son Khamis, have been severely depleted by nearly three months of street fighting in the city and Nato bombardment.

They appear confident that the shock of attack from heavily armed helicopters will give rebel units the chance to push westwards towards Tripoli, enlarging the pocket.

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