Libya: Nato surprised by pro-Gaddafi Sirte resistance

Nato officials say they are surprised that pro-Gaddafi fighters are continuing to wage such fierce resistance in the Libyan city of Sirte.

Interim government forces have cornered the loyalists in a small area of the city but are facing stout resistance.

Sirte is the home town of fugitive leader Col Muammar Gaddafi and one of the last loyalist strongholds.

The National Transitional Council (NTC) says that once Sirte falls, they will declare Libya to be fully liberated.

Nato's chief military officer Adm Giampaolo Di Paola said the loyalist forces were acting like a cornered, "ferocious beast".

He said he was "surprised by their capacity to resist" but that they also had no other choice but to "fight until the end".

Nato spokesman Roland Lavoie said that with NTC forces now in control of much of the city and supply lines to the loyalists cut off, "it just does not make sense" for them to still be fighting.

"This could certainly be qualified as surprising both from a military and political point of view," as they "could not change or influence the outcome of this conflict".