Everybody out, then action

A draft resolution before it calls for an arms embargo, a travel ban and an asset freeze in response to its attempts to put down an uprising.

There is also a proposal to refer Colonel Gaddafi to the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity.

The UN estimates more than 1,000 people have died in the 10-day-old revolt.

The global body’s World Food Programme has warned that the food distribution system is “at risk of collapsing” in the North African nation, which is heavily dependent on imports.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has demanded “decisive action” by the Security Council.

The draft resolution it is considering is backed by Britain, France, Germany and the US.

The US has already closed its embassy in Libya and imposed sanctions against the country.

President Barack Obama signed an executive order on Friday freezing assets held in the US by Col Gaddafi, members of his family and senior officials. The president said he was also seizing Libyan state property in the US, to prevent it being misappropriated by Tripoli.

Much of Libya, especially the east, is now controlled by anti-Gaddafi forces but the Libyan leader still controls the capital Tripoli, home to two million of the country’s 6.5 million population.

Friday saw reports of anti-government demonstrators in several areas of the city coming under fire from government troops and pro-Gaddafi militiamen. At the same time, Libyan state TV showed Col Gaddafi speaking from Tripoli’s old city ramparts.

“We shall destroy any aggression with popular will,” he said. “With the armed people, when necessary we will open the weapons depots. So that all the Libyan people, all the Libyan tribes can be armed. Libya will become a red flame, a burning coal.”

Latest reports from Tripoli say the city is calm, with shops open and people on the streets.

A Libyan journalist told the BBC that supporters of Colonel Gaddafi were occupying central Green Square in a public show of support.

Outside the capital, anti-Gaddafi protesters are consolidating their power in the second city, Benghazi. Leaders of the uprising are setting up committees to run the city and deliver basic services.

It is believed that rebels are fighting units of the regular army in the western cities of Misrata and Zawiya.

One of Colonel Gaddafi’s sons, Saif al-Islam, has admitted that government troops had what he called a problem in those places. State television is continuing to blame the uprising on a combination of the Islamist al-Qaeda network, drug-taking and the influence of the foreign media.

Thousands of foreign nationals – many of them employed in the oil industry – continue to be evacuated from the country by air, sea and land.