Embattled Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, under intense pressure to quit, was slapped with an EU visa ban while ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak too was hit by travel restrictions, as pro-democracy uprisings raged across the Arab world.
The European Union, moving quickly to avoid a descent into civil war and further bloodshed in Libya, said it had imposed an asset freeze and visa ban on Kadhafi and 25 others accused of brutalising civilians.
In line with a UN resolution adopted Saturday, the 27-nation bloc banned the supply to Libya of arms, ammunition and related material.
The EU also said it was making contact with Libyans seeking to overthrow Kadhafi's regime, a day after Washington said it was ready to assist the pro-democracy protesters who have overrun key cities and now control vast swathes of the oil-rich North African state.
Kadhafi's crumbling regime now controls only some western areas around the capital and a few long-time bastions in the arid south, reporters and witnesses say as France, the United States and Britain urged him to step down.
The EU's energy commissioner said meanwhile Kadhafi's regime no longer controls most of Libya's oil and gas fields as they have fallen in the hands of the opposition.
"There is reason to believe that the majority of the oil and gas fields are no longer under Kadhafi's control," Gunther Oettinger told a news conference in Brussels.
A travel ban meanwhile was also slapped Monday on Egypt's ousted president Hosni Mubarak, a judicial source in Cairo said.
Besides Mubarak, who resigned and retreated to his home in Sharm el-Sheikh on the Red Sea on February 11 following weeks of protests, the decision also applied for his wife Suzanne, his two sons Ala and Gamal, and their wives, according to the source.
Mubarak is widely thought to have grown wealthy during his rule, with the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper reporting that his family had "secret accounts in Egyptian banks," including deposits of $147 million for his wife and $100 million each for his sons.
Egyptian authorities have launched numerous judicial proceedings against those close to Mubarak, most of them based on accusations of corruption and fraud.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Geneva meanwhile that backing political transitions in the Arab world was not just a matter of ideals, but a "strategic imperative".
"The United States supports orderly, peaceful and irreversible transitions to real democracies that deliver results for their citizens," she told the UN Human Rights Council.
Even as she was speaking, fresh clashes erupted between Omani police and protesters, a day after police killed at least one as the turmoil rocking the Arab world reached the normally calm Gulf sultanate.
Hundreds of demonstrators stormed a police station in the key industrial area of Sohar, northwest of the capital Muscat, and police responded by firing tear gas, witnesses said.
The protesters, who are demanding jobs and political reform, continued to man roadblocks around Sohar despite the announcement by the authorities of new benefits for the jobless and more powers for an elected advisory council.
In Algiers, a man has died after setting himself alight at the weekend in a protest in front of a government office, the El Watan daily newspaper reported Monday.
It was the fifth death by self-immolation in Algeria since mid-January, soon after days of rioting across much of the country to protest soaring food prices. About a dozen people have carried out similar protests since then.
The self-immolation of a young Tunisian in December unleashed weeks of protests in that country that toppled president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali after 23 years in power. Similar protests have spread across the Arab world.
In Tunisia itself, a minister in the interim government quit on Monday, hours after the prime minister resigned.
Mohamed Afif Chelbi, minister of industry and technology, and ex-prime minister Mohammed Ghannouchi, who stepped down on Sunday, were both in the government of the ousted president.
In Manama, Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman said on Monday efforts were underway to launch talks with the opposition, which is demanding major political reforms amid a wave of anti-government protests.
The sweeping unrest has affected financial markets, with stocks listed in the energy-rich Gulf states dropping, some sharply, on Monday, traders said.
Daily protests in Bahrain and violent demonstrations in Oman besides the continued unrest in Libya and several other Arab countries have heavily impacted dealers' sentiment, traders said.
Companies listed on the seven bourses in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have this year shed at least $70 billion (50.6 billion euros), or around nine percent of their capitalisation, most of it after the outbreak of Arab protests in January.
World oil prices too have spiked, shooting higher Monday in earlier Asian trade before retreating, analysts said.
Brent North Sea crude for delivery in April slid 34 cents to $111.80 per barrel in afternoon deals, having earlier spiked as high as $114.50.
Kuwait, too, has been affected, with a key opposition group on Monday demanding the ouster of the prime minister as youth activists called for a rally on March 8 to force the premier to quit.
And in Djibouti, President Ismael Omar Guelleh, who is seeking a third term in April elections, accused the opposition Monday of choosing the path of violence.
