Gaddafi handed ultimatum to stop attacks immediately

France, Britain, the United States and Arab countries have told Libya's Muammar Gaddafi to "immediately" end attacks against his people or face military intervention based on a U.N. resolution, according to a statement received from the French presidency Friday.

It said the countries think "that a ceasefire must be put in place immediately… that is all attacks against civilians must come to an end."

It went on to state that "Gaddafi must end his troops' advance on Benghazi and withdraw from Adjdabiyah, Misratah and Zawiyah.... That is not negotiable."

It also warned that if Gaddafi does not comply with the U.N. resolution, he will face "consequences" from the international community and "the resolution will be imposed by military means."

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe earlier said everything was ready to launch military strikes in Libya and that a ceasefire declared by Muammar Gaddafi would need to cover the whole country.

"We have to analyze the conditions of the ceasefire," Juppe told Reuters television. "It has to be on all of the territory of Libya and not only Benghazi, and we think that Libya must comply with all the resolutions of the (U.N.) Security Council."

He said the ceasefire pledge would be examined at a summit in Paris on Saturday. Regarding military strikes, he said: "We are ready but I cannot give you more details."

A number of sources tol Al Arabiya that military action against Gaddafi was expected by Saturday night.

"One step at a time"

"Libya has already implemented the ceasefire," Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said. "We have not carried out any military operations today on Misrata or anywhere else in the country."

He said that Tripoli wanted Turkish and Maltese authorities to "supervise and help implement the ceasefire."

"We don't know who to reach at the (U.N.) Security Council to work out the technicalities of the ceasefire. That is the problem at the moment which we are trying to resolve," he said.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said that Italy will make its military bases available and take an active role in any operations against Libya.

"We appreciated the resolution (of the UN Security Council) and we fully support it," he said.

"The Italian decision is not just full support for the resolution but also the necessity of participating actively."

The United States will deploy additional amphibious ships to the Mediterranean, the military said, as part of the Obama administration's plans for responding to ongoing violence in Libya.

The USS Bataan Amphibious Ready Group will deploy on March 23 "ahead of its original schedule in order to relieve units from the USS Kearsarge (Amphibious Ready Group) currently positioned in the Mediterranean Sea," it said in a statement.

The arriving group includes the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan, based in Virginia, and other ships.

The international effort against Libyan leader Gaddafi is aimed at ousting him but will move "one step at a time" and first halt violence against civilians, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday.

"Colonel Gaddafi's refusal to hear the repeated calls (and) up until now to halt violence against his own people has left us with no other choice but to pursue this course of action," Clinton told reporters.

"We are going to be not responsive or impressed by words, we would have to see actions on the ground and that is not yet at all clear," Clinton said.

"We will continue to work with our partners in the international community to press Gaddafi to leave and to support the legitimate aspirations of the Libyan people."

"The overwhelming vote by the Security Council I think reflects a broad understanding that, Number One: stop the violence, and Number Two: we do believe that a final result of any negotiations would have to be the decision by Colonel Gaddafi to leave," she said.

"We will judge him by actions"

Prime Minister David Cameron said Britain would judge Libyan leader Gaddafi by actions on the ground after Libya said it was declaring a ceasefire to comply with a United Nations resolution.

"We will judge him by his actions not his words," Cameron told BBC TV.

"What is absolutely clear is the U.N. Security Council resolution said he must stop what he is doing, brutalizing his people. If not, all necessary measures can follow to make him stop.

"That is what we agreed last night, that is what we are preparing for and we'll judge him by what he does."

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero warned that the international community "will not be fooled" by the Libyan regime and will verify compliance with the U.N. resolution.

"The international community will not be fooled by the Libyan regime and will verify by all possible means that the resolution is strictly respected," he told a joint news conference with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The head of NATO said on Friday the alliance was completing planning in order to be able to take "appropriate action" on Libya.

"NATO is now completing its planning in order to be ready to take appropriate action in support of the U.N. resolution as part of the broad international effort," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a statement.

Declaring ceasefire

Earlier on Friday Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa said that Libya had declared a ceasefire in the country to protect civilians and comply with a United Nations resolution passed overnight.

"We decided on an immediate ceasefire and on an immediate stop to all military operations," he told reporters.

"(Libya) takes great interest in protecting civilians," he said, adding that the country would also protect all foreigners and foreign assets in Libya.

Military action against Libya will come within "hours" and France will participate in the strikes, government spokesman Francois Baroin said Friday, after the United Nations Security Council authorized action.

"The French, who led the calls (for action), will of course be consistent with military intervention," Baroin told French radio RTL. Asked to specify what that meant, he said "they will participate" in operations.

In the first officially announced Arab role, Qatar said it will contribute to international efforts to protect Libyan civilians and urged quick action to impose a no-fly zone on the North African country, state news agency QNA reported on Friday. Egypt, Tunisia and Jordan said they will not take any part in a military intervention in Libya.

Norway will also join the international military action in Libya, a Norwegian daily quoted the defense minister as saying on its website on Friday.

We are in our country and with our people. And we are not afraid

Seif al-Islam Gaddafi

UN resolution

The United Nations late on Thursday authorized military strikes to protect Libyan civilians and curb Gaddafi's forces, hours after the Libyan leader threatened to storm the rebel bastion of Benghazi overnight.

Seif al-Islam Gaddafi on Friday said his family was "not afraid" after the United Nations approved air strikes against forces loyal to his father's regime.

"We are in our country and with our people. And we are not afraid," Seif al-Islam told ABC News Nightline from the Libyan capital Tripoli.

"We will not be afraid. Come on! We will not be afraid. I mean, you are not helping to the people if you are going to bomb Libya, to kill Libyans. You destroy our country. Nobody is happy with that."

The United Nations resolution came hours after Gaddafi threatened to storm the opposition bastion of Benghazi overnight, showing "no mercy, no pity".

"We will come. House by house, room by room," Gaddafi said in a radio address to the eastern city late on Thursday.

The U.N. Security Council, meeting in emergency session, passed a resolution endorsing a no-fly zone to halt government troops now around 100 km (60 miles) from Benghazi. It also authorized "all necessary measures" -- code for military action -- to protect civilians against Gaddafi's forces.

But time was clearly running short for the city that has been the heart of Libya's month-old revolution.

The threat to civilians was the basis of the Security Council action, which passed by a vote of 10-0, with five abstentions, including Russia and China. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said his country abstained because the vote may lead to large-scale military intervention.

Celebrations in Benghazi

Overjoyed Libyans poured into the streets of Benghazi on Thursday night to celebrate after the U.N. vote.

As news of the Security Council vote broke, the air in the opposition stronghold crackled with gunfire and the noise of bursts from anti-aircraft weapons reverberated off buildings along the seafront.

In the central square, protesters fell into each others' arms, embracing and some crying with delight at the news that the world body had approved the no-fly zone that opposition fighters have pleaded for in recent weeks.

Red tracer bullets arced across the sky as preachers across Benghazi used mosque loudspeakers to chant "God is greatest, God is greatest."

Cars quickly took to the roads as the decision was announced at around midnight local time, with drivers honking their horns and passengers waving the rebels' black-red-green flag in celebration.

The crowd of a few hundred in Benghazi's central square swelled in minutes to several thousand as people converged from across the city to celebrate with their neighbors.