A team of African leaders have arrived in the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi to try to sell a peace plan already accepted by Muammar Gaddafi's regime.
But the rebels were demanding that any ceasefire would require the withdrawal of government troops from the streets and freedom of expression.
"The people must be allowed to go into the streets to express their opinion and the soldiers must return to their barracks," Shamsiddin Abdulmolah, a spokesman for the rebels' Transitional National Council, told AFP.
"If people are free to come out and demonstrate in Tripoli, then that's it. I imagine all of Libya will be liberated within moments."
Gaddafi accepts AU peace plan: Zuma
South African President Jacob Zuma said from Tripoli that Gaddafi had accepted an African Union peace plan designed to end the current conflict, before the delegation moved on to meet rebel leaders.
"We also in this communique are making a call on NATO to cease the bombings to allow and to give a ceasefire a chance," Zuma stressed.
Gaddafi's delegation had accepted the AU's proposals, details of which would be set out in a statement later, Zuma added.
But the South African leader will take no further part in the talks as he was leaving Libya to return home due to prior commitments.
The other members of the AU team -- the leaders of Mali, Amadou Toumani Toure, Mauritania, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, and Congo's Denis Sassou Nguesso, as well as Ugandan Foreign Minister Henry Oryem Okello, representing President Yoweri Museveni -- were travelling west to rebel-held Benghazi, 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) east of Tripoli.
The African mediators were welcomed to Tripoli by Gaddafi supporters holding the veteran Libyan leader's picture and waving the green flag of his regime.
Gaddafi should not be underestimated: Blair
Britain's former premier Tony Blair told CNN earlier that Gaddafi should not be underestimated.
"Whatever people say about being delusional and so forth, he's kept that grip there for 40 years," Blair said on the channel's "State of the Union" programme.
In Brussels, NATO said it had hit at least 26 regime tanks near the third city of Misrata, under siege by pro-Gaddafi forces, and the battleground crossroads town of Ajdabiya further east.
After destroying 14 tanks around Misrata early in the day, warplanes struck more tanks and anti-aircraft guns in the late afternoon, a NATO official said on condition of anonymity.
Near Ajdabiya, alliance aircraft blasted 11 tanks in the morning and struck one more tank and three military vehicles in the evening.
NATO strikes continue around the clock
The alliance had already taken out 15 tanks near Misrata.
"The pressure continues as NATO strikes go on day and night," the official said.
Earlier, the NATO operation's commander Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard said: "The situation in Ajdabiya, and Misrata in particular, is desperate for those Libyans who are being brutally shelled by the regime.
"To help protect these civilians we continue to strike these forces hard..." he said in a statement.
"We are hitting the regime logistics facilities as well as their heavy weapons because we know Gaddafi is finding it hard to sustain his attacks on civilians."
No ceasefire without Gaddafi pullback: Rebels
Libyan rebels said that any ceasefire would require the withdrawal of government troops from the streets and freedom of expression, as African mediators were due in their stronghold.
"The people must be allowed to go into the streets to express their opinion and the soldiers must return to their barracks," Shamsiddin Abdulmolah, a spokesman for the rebels' Transitional National Council, told AFP.
"If people are free to come out and demonstrate in Tripoli, then that's it. I imagine all of Libya will be liberated within moments."
He also demanded the release of hundreds of people who have gone missing since the outbreak of the popular uprising and are believed to be held by Gaddafi's forces.
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