Libyan capital Tripoli and Sirte, the hometown of Muammar Gaddafi, both came under attack in coalition air raids on Sunday, state television announced.
Two loud explosions were heard around 1800 GMT in the city of Sirte as planes flew overhead, an AFP correspondent reported, while in the capital Tripoli explosions and anti-aircraft fire were reported.
Shortly after the explosions in Sirte, Libyan television confirmed the city had been the target of air raids by "the colonial aggressor", as had Tripoli.
Witnesses in the capital said the strikes targeted the road to the international airport, 10 kilometres outside the city, as well as the Ain Zara neighbourhood on its eastern oustkirts.
The 20 or so journalists invited to Sirte by the Libyan authorities to view the state of the city for themselves, were unable to identify where the explosions were coming from or whether the previous night's coalition air raids had caused any damage.
Sirte is where Gaddafi has long chosen to receive visiting foreign dignitaries in a grand tent complex on its desert outskirts. The Libyan leader has always prided himself on his nomadic bedouin roots.
Before leaving Tripoli, many of the travelling journalists called their embassies to ask that they not be targeted in any coalition air strikes.
Armed men in military gear and plain clothes were patrolling the town in dozens of pick-up trucks, brandishing pictures of Gaddafi and many were firing guns into the air.
Families flee Sirte
Earlier, AFP correspondents witnessed families fleeing west from Sirte following coalition air raids the previous night.
A dozen cars were seen heading towards Tripoli, 360 kilometres to the west, filled with women and children fearing fresh air strikes and the advancing rebel fighters, who have been pushing Gaddafi's forces back along the main coastal road.
According to a Sirte resident reached by telephone, the town was hit by air strikes throughout Saturday night and Sunday morning. "The city became a fireball." Most people, terrified, fled into the desert.
Three boats laden with hundreds of African migrants fleeing Libya arrived in Italy on Sunday, the first such vessels to reach Europe since the start of the uprising against Gaddafi's regime.
The boats carried around 800 people -- mostly Eritreans, Ethiopians and Somalians -- and were taken to the tiny outcrop of Linosa close to the larger island of Lampedusa where thousands have been arriving from Tunisia.
NATO takeover 'immediate'
NATO's agreement to take full command of operations in Libya from a US-led coalition will have immediate effect, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.
"We have directed NATO's top operational commander to begin executing this operation with immediate effect," Rasmussen said in a statement.
Rasmussen said the goal of the UN-mandated military operation in Libya was "to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas under threat of attack from the (Moamer) Kadhafi regime."
"NATO will implement all aspects of the UN resolution. Nothing more, nothing less," he said.
NATO officials, however, said the transition would take around 48 hours, meaning the coalition will co-exist with NATO's operation for another two days.
