Forces loyal to the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi are moving into rebel territory in the east, capturing an oil installation in the town of Brega.

The manager of the installation said they took control at dawn without using force, but rebel forces later said they had regained control of the town. Pro-Gaddafi jets also bombed an arms dump in the nearby city of Ajdabiya.The city's defenders are in a high state of excitement and expecting an attack, a BBC correspondent says.

Meanwhile Libyan TV showed what appeared to be live pictures of Col Gaddafi meeting crowds in a large hall in central Tripoli, as a cheerleader chanted slogans. In two weeks of unrest the Libyan leader has lost control of large parts of Libya.

The violence has led to a major humanitarian crisis on the Tunisian border, with tens of thousands of foreigners, most of them Egyptian, stranded and unable to get home. Some 75,000 people have fled to Tunisia since unrest began and 40,000 more are waiting to cross, the UN says.

In other developments:

In the capital Tripoli, where Col Gaddafi is still in charge, a fuel tanker overturned causing several large explosions. It is not clear whether they were caused by sabotage.

Col Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam tells France's Le Figaro newspaper "a few hundred people" died in eastern Libya in the early stages of the unrest after police officers "panicked" but denied air strikes against civilians.

Two US warships, the USS Kearsarge and USS Ponce, enter the Suez Canal en route for the Mediterranean, after orders from Defence Secretary Robert Gates that they should move closer to Libya.

The rebel revolutionary council in Benghazi formally asks the UN to end air strikes by forces loyal to Col Gaddafi, media reports say.