US Secretary of State slams Libyan leader’s threat to attack Europe as revolutionists poised for push towards Tripoli

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stepped up Western calls on Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi to quit, brushing off his threat to attack Europeans in their homes and offices, as Libyan revolutionists were poised for push towards Tripoli.

"Instead of issuing threats, Gaddafi should put the well-being and the interests of his own people first and he should step down from power and help facilitate a democratic transition," Clinton told reporters on a trip to Spain.

In an address relayed to some 100,000 supporters in Tripoli's Green Square on Friday, Gaddafi urged NATO to halt its bombing campaign or to risk seeing Libyan fighters descend on Europe "like a swarm of locusts or bees."

"Retreat, you have no chance of beating this brave people," Gaddafi said. "They can attack your homes, your offices and your families, which will become military targets just as you have transformed our offices, headquarters, houses and children into what you regard as legitimate military targets," he added.

NATO announced it had stepped up strikes on Gaddafi forces in west Libya including the capital Tripoli, saying that it had carried out more than 50 attacks since Monday.

Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez said the alliance stance was unchanged. "Spain's and the international coalition's response is to maintain the unity and determination with which we have been working these past months," she said.

Meanwhile, Libya’s revolutionists said they were poised for an offensive that could put it within striking distance of Tripoli.

The fighters are readying an advance out of their hilltop enclave in the Nafusa Mountains, southwest of Tripoli, in the next 48 hours in a bid to recapture territory in the plains on the road to the capital, spokesman Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani said. "In the next two days the (revolutionaries) will come up with answers, things will change on the front line," he said.

The revolutionists had pulled back last week from around the plains town of Bir al-Ghanam, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Tripoli, in the face of loyalist bombardment.