Fighting continues in Libya as government rejects cease-fire proposal

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) — Forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi showed no signs of backing down Saturday after officials spurned an opposition cease-fire proposal.

Government spokesman Musa Ibrahim told reporters in Tripoli Friday that rebels were not “really serious” about the offer, which he said included “silly conditions.”

“They are asking us to withdraw from our own cities and open our cities to people, who are holding up arms, who are tribal, violent, no unified leadership, al Qaeda links, and no one knows who they are. If this is not mad, then I don’t know what it is,” he said. “We will not leave our cities. We will not stop protecting our civilians.”

His comments came after Libyan opposition leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil laid out cease-fire conditions that included freedom of expression for the Libyan people and the removal of snipers, mercenaries and militias from western cities.

Ultimately, he said, the opposition’s goal remains regime change in Libya.

Sources close to Gadhafi told CNN that political solutions are still possible but that the Libyan leader would relinquish power only to others within his inner circle.

They said there is still time for dialogue but expressed doubts about who would represent the opposition.

Any transition, they said, would involve Gadhafi’s second son, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, and for such a transition to take place there would first have to be an end to the fighting.

In a fresh offensive Friday, Libyan opposition forces led by army units that have defected from Gadhafi’s forces were able to push back Gadhafi’s troops, rebel spokesman Shamsiddin Abdulmolah said.

Rebels were fighting with newly refurbished rocket launchers and artillery delivered to the frontlines Thursday night by the army units that switched sides, Abdulmolah said.

Fighting raged at the gates of the oil town of al-Brega, which has changed hands six times in as many weeks under the dramatically shifting circumstances of Libya’s civil war.

In the west, witnesses reported more explosions and fierce urban warfare in the besieged city of Misrata, once the final rebel stronghold in the western part of the country.

The Libyan sources told CNN that for now, Gadhafi remains confident the regime can withstand any challenge from the rebels.

U.S. officials claim Gadhafi’s military capabilities have been steadily eroded since the onset of U.N.-sanctioned airstrikes.

But the dictator’s forces still outnumber rebels by about 10-to-1 in terms of armor and other ground forces, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Navy Adm. Mike Mullen told the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, also speaking before the House committee, warned that the Libyan rebels still need significant training and assistance.

“It’s pretty much a pickup ballgame” right now, he said.

CNN’s Frederik Pleitgen, Ben Wedeman, Nic Robertson, and Reza Sayah contributed to this report.