Washington agrees to extend air strikes in Libya

The United States agreed to extend air strikes in Libya into Monday as heavy fighting escalated at the oil town of Brega and a fresh defection gave a new blow to Muammar Gaddafi.

The U.S. air strikes, part of a coalition effort to protect civilians from Gaddafi's forces, would continue through Monday at NATO's request, because of "recent poor weather in Libya," the Pentagon said late on Sunday.

The U.S. military had planned to begin withdrawing its combat jets and Tomahawk missiles from the air campaign against Libya's regime this weekend, as NATO allies were to take the lead in bombing Gaddafi's forces.

Meanwhile, Gaddafi was hit by another defection.

Former foreign minister and U.N. General Assembly president Ali Treiki became the latest official to abandon Gaddafi, after the flight to Britain of foreign minister and regime stalwart Mussa Kussa days earlier.

On the front line, revolutionaries who had entered the eastern town of Brega early on Sunday said they were staging a tactical withdrawal after being ambushed, according to AFP.

Loud explosions could still be heard from Brega's outskirts as the rebels' best-trained fighters took on the Gaddafi loyalists.

Most of the revolutionary volunteers acknowledged they lacked the military training, discipline and knowledge of the terrain to mount a frontal assault on Brega.

They said they were dependent on the protesters' few trained fighters, mostly defectors from the regular army.

"There is no commander. We are all together," said Abdul Wahed Aguri, a 28-year-old.

"We are not army. We can't move closer to Brega because we don't know where the enemy is. We don't know the area. We have to wait for the army (defectors)," he said, adding that could take a whole day.

Intermittent explosions rumbled across the desert landscape as the rebel vanguard traded rocket and artillery fire with Gaddafi forces inside the town.

Aircraft from the NATO-led coalition enforcing a no-fly zone were heard overhead. The protesters said they heard air strikes on loyalist positions in the town overnight, although there was no immediate confirmation from the alliance.

Retired U.S. general James Jones, who until last October was President Barack Obama's national security adviser, said the Libya endgame was more "vital" to Europe than to the United States.

He also acknowledged on Sunday talk shows that Gaddafi's ouster was the ultimate goal in the coalition air campaign.