LIBYA: Airstrikes force Gadhafi to fall back from key western city; NATO ships patrol Libyan coast and Interim Government formed

International air-strikes forced Moammar Gadhafi’s tanks to roll back from the western city of Misrata on Wednesday, a local doctor said, giving respite to civilians who have endured more than a week of attacks and a punishing blockade. In the east, civilians fleeing another strategic city described relentless shelling and dire conditions.

The international coalition continued airstrikes and patrols early Wednesday, but the report that Misrata was targeted could not immediately be confirmed. U.S. Navy Adm. Samuel J. Locklear, the on-scene commander, said Tuesday the coalition was “considering all options” in response to intelligence showing troops were targeting civilians in the city, 125 miles (200 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli.

A doctor in Misrata said the tanks fled after the airstrikes began around midnight, giving a much-needed reprieve to the city, which is inaccessible to human rights monitors or journalists. He said the airstrikes struck the aviation academy and a vacant lot outside the central hospital, which was under maintenance.

In the meantime Libya's pro-democracy fighters have formed an "interim government" even as forces backing the country's leader, Muammar Gaddafi, press ahead with attacks against them.

Once Gaddafi is removed from power they  want to establish a secular democracy in Libya that would respect oil contracts awarded under Muammar Gaddafi, members of the council said.

Heading up the new government as an interim prime minister is Mahmoud Jibril, who had been working as a representative to foreign powers.

He is best known on the international stage for meeting Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, which led to France diplomatically recognizing the rebels' transitional council as the sole representative of the Libyan people.

Ali Zeidan, one of 31 members of the Libyan National Council, told reporters the rebels could overcome Gaddafi's forces in ten days if the coalition of Western powers continued its U.N.-mandated strikes.

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