Moamer Kadhafi's regime is "finished," Italy's foreign minister said Tuesday in the Libyan rebel stronghold after NATO warplanes struck Tripoli and African efforts for a ceasefire stalled.

"The Kadhafi regime is finished, he must leave office, he must leave the country," Franco Frattini told a joint news conference in Benghazi with Ali al-Essawi, the rebels' foreign affairs chief.

"His aides have left, he has no international support, the G8 leaders reject him, he must go."

Frattini was speaking ahead of a ceremony to inaugurate a new Italian consulate in the eastern city, in another major blow to Kadhafi after NATO insisted his "reign of terror" is nearing an end.

"We must continue our military pressure (and) strengthen our economic sanctions to ensure that the movement of the Libyan people is irreversible," he said.

Italy, the former colonial ruler of Libya and strategic economic partner with Moamer Kadhafi's regime, has joined international calls led by Britain, France and the United States for the Libyan leader to go.

NATO pounded Tripoli earlier on Tuesday, only hours after South African President Jacob Zuma left Libya's capital having failed to close the gap between Kadhafi and rebels fighting to oust him since February.

Libya's state-run Jamahiriya TV cited a military source as saying "NATO colonialist crusaders" targeted military and civilian sites in Tripoli and Tajura, causing deaths and damage.

From the centre of Tripoli, which NATO has been attacking for several weeks now, an AFP correspondent reported warplanes flying overhead and distant explosions around midnight (2200 GMT).

In its latest operational update, NATO said Tuesday it struck four military site in the vicinity of Tripoli, including missile launchers, a vehicle storage facility and a radar.

Elsewhere it took out a command and control node and several tanks, truck-mounted guns and other military vehicles in and around Misrata, the main rebel-held city in western Libya.

Zuma said raids by NATO, which is enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya and protecting civilians from a government crackdown under a UN mandate, were undermining African mediation efforts.

South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane called for an immediate ceasefire after Zuma said Kadhafi was "ready" to implement an African Union peace plan already rejected by NATO and the rebels.

"Consistent with the decision of the AU on Libya, we reiterate our call for immediate ceasefire that is verifiable and encourage the warring parties to begin a dialogue to a democratic transition," she told parliament.

In Tripoli, Zuma said Kadhafi was "ready to implement the roadmap of the AU" and that he had insisted "all Libyans be given a chance to talk among themselves" to determine the country's future.

However the South African leader did not publicly discuss the key obstacle, Kadhafi's departure, which the rebels insisted on as the starting point to any ceasefire agreement.

His office said later Kadhafi was not prepared to leave his country.

"Colonel Kadhafi called for an end to the (NATO) bombings to enable a Libyan dialogue. He emphasised that he was not prepared to leave his country, despite the difficulties," it said in a statement.

"Colonel Kadhafi reiterated his agreement to a ceasefire and a dialogue of the Libyan people to find a political solution. He expressed his anger at the NATO bombings, which have claimed the lives of his son and grandchildren and continue to cause a destruction of property and disruption of life," it added.

Meanwhile, Russia offered to send experts to Libya to check whether leader Kadhafi's son and grandchildren were killed in a NATO strike or whether the claim made on May 1 was for "propaganda" reasons.

If Libya sends a request, "the Russian side can send qualified experts to Tripoli," the spokesman said, commenting after Italian President Silvio Berlusconi last week denied the report of Seif al-Arab's death.

Meanwhile, nearly 1,000 migrants -- including 130 women and about 40 children -- escaping fighting in Libya arrived Tuesday by fishing boat in Pozzallo, near Ragusa, at Sicily's southern-most point, the Italian coast guard said.

In the Italian capital on Monday, five generals, two colonels and a major announced they had defected from Kadhafi's forces, and said the regime's army was now at 20-percent capacity.

Abdel Rahman Shalgham, a former foreign minister who was Tripoli's UN representative before switching sides, told a news conference: "These officers are among 120 who left Kadhafi and Libya over the last few days."

Libyan General Salah Giuma Yahmed said the ongoing defections meant Kadhafi's forces could no longer prop up the regime.

The rebel leaders, called the National Transitional Council, announced Monday that they had renamed their armed forces the National Liberation Army.

Meanwhile, the rebels also launched their first television channel, Al-Hurra, broadcasting for four hours on Monday night from Benghazi.

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