“(It) was obviously a strategic withdrawal because of the battlefield situation and the amount of bombardment that the revolutionary forces were receiving,” said Ahmed Bani, a rebel military spokesman.

“But we hope to counter that within the next 48 hours.”

The rebels had earlier advanced to within 80 km of Muammar Qaddafi’s stronghold in Tripoli but retreated on Friday after coming under rocket fire from his forces.

Their push to the outskirts of the town of Bir Al-Ghanam had raised the possibility of a breakthrough in a four-month old conflict in the North African nation.

Speaking in the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi, Bani said insurgents fighting in western Libya had enough supplies and manpower to counter Qaddafi forces and required no reinforcements from the east.

“Our people in the western parts have enough men, they have no shortage of ammunition and definitely no lack of bravery,” he said. “So there isn’t any particular reinforcement being sent to the west.”

In the east, Libya’s frontline near the town of Brega has been deadlocked for weeks, with rebels and Qaddafi forces dug in at more or less the same positions without any conclusive fighting. Bani said he believed that too may soon change.

“We all know that the strategic point in the eastern front is the capture of Brega,” he said. “We hope the countdown to that will start very soon, the minute that our forces start advancing from Ajdabiyah to Brega.”

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton brushed off Gaddafi's Friday threat to attack "homes, offices and families" in Europe in revenge for NATO airstrikes and urged the Libyan leader to quit.

"Instead of issuing threats, Gaddafi should put the well-being and the interests of his own people first and he should step down from power and help facilitate a democratic transition," Clinton told a news conference during a visit to NATO member Spain.

In a telephone address relayed to some 100,000 supporters in Tripoli's Green Square on Friday evening, Gaddafi urged NATO to halt its bombing campaign or risk seeing Libyan fighters descend on Europe "like a swarm of locusts or bees".

Gaddafi, who along with his son and spy chief faces an international arrest warrant for crimes against humanity, has vowed to fight to the end and branded the NATO operation a colonial aggression aimed at securing Libya's oil riches.

"Retreat, you have no chance of beating this brave people," Gaddafi said in his address broadcast on Friday.

"They can attack your homes, your offices and your families, which will become military targets just as you have transformed our offices, headquarters, houses and children into what you regards as legitimate military targets," he said.

"If we choose, we can descend on Europe like a swarm of locusts or bees. We therefore advise you to retreat before you face catastrophe."