LONDON (Reuters) – Portraying his assailants as colonial bullies, Muammar Gaddafi is gambling that a long war would allow him to play the role of victim and erode Western resolve, enabling him to negotiate some form of continued rule.

For now, that looks like a very long shot, analysts say.

World powers who began a U.N.-backed military campaign overnight are acutely aware of the human cost of Gaddafi’s determined crackdown against a six-week-old popular uprising.

LONDON (Reuters) – Fight to the end for Muammar Gaddafi? Or defect and save your skin?

The second question may not occur to most in Gaddafi’s inner circle, committed to Libya’s longtime leader by blood ties, ideology, business interest or complicity in repression, analysts say.

LONDON (Reuters) – Fight to the end for Muammar Gaddafi? Or defect and save your skin?

The second question may not occur to most in Gaddafi’s inner circle, committed to Libya’s longtime leader by blood ties, ideology, business interest or complicity in repression, analysts say.

LONDON (Reuters) – Finally confronted by a far stronger adversary, Muammar Gaddafi’s pragmatic instincts will be to stall, secure a truce and negotiate continued control of a rump regime based in Libya’s west.

His life as well as his rule at stake, the veteran autocrat will also tighten security control over his entourage to avert any repetition of the numerous coup attempts that have marked his 41 years in power, analysts say.

LONDON (Reuters) – Finally confronted by a far stronger adversary, Muammar Gaddafi’s pragmatic instincts will be to stall, secure a truce and negotiate continued control of a rump regime based in Libya’s west.

His life as well as his rule at stake, the veteran autocrat will also tighten security control over his entourage to avert any repetition of the numerous coup attempts that have marked his 41 years in power, analysts say.

LONDON (Reuters) – Even at this late hour the outside world could do much to prevent more bloodshed in Libya provided it agrees precise aims and forges a collective will.

With Muammar Gaddafi’s tanks and heavy guns advancing on the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, the opposition is urging the West to act now to rescue the Arab world’s most violently resisted pro-democracy revolt.

LONDON (Reuters) – Even at this late hour the outside world could do much to prevent more bloodshed in Libya provided it agrees precise aims and forges a collective will.

With Muammar Gaddafi’s tanks and heavy guns advancing on the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, the opposition is urging the West to act now to rescue the Arab world’s most violently resisted pro-democracy revolt.

LONDON (Reuters) – Far from ending Libya’s conflict, a military victory by Muammar Gaddafi would see his enemies retreat to a few urban strongholds and relaunch their revolt as a grinding guerrilla war.

A decisive win for the government in conventional military terms remains unlikely, in the view of many, but is no longer unimaginable: Enjoying supremacy in the air and in heavy armour, Gaddafi’s forces appear to have regained the momentum in the OPEC member country’s three-week old conflict.

LONDON (Reuters) – Far from ending Libya’s conflict, a military victory by Muammar Gaddafi would see his enemies retreat to a few urban strongholds and relaunch their revolt as a grinding guerrilla war.

A decisive win for the government in conventional military terms remains unlikely, in the view of many, but is no longer unimaginable: Enjoying supremacy in the air and in heavy armor, Gaddafi’s forces appear to have regained the momentum in the OPEC member country’s three-week old conflict.

LONDON (Reuters) – In the absence of U.N. Security Council backing for a “no-fly” zone over Libya, Western states are meeting some success in winning assent from Arab and Islamic voices.

But more political cover will be needed before wary Western powers impose such a zone because its operation will inevitably place lives on the ground at a degree of risk, and any deaths of innocents will anger Muslim communities around the world.