NATO airstrikes have restricted Gaddafi\'s movements

Ashton will meet the head of the rebels\' National Transitional Council and inaugurate the EU mission EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton arrived Sunday in the rebel-held city of Benghazi in eastern Libya to open a European Union mission hours after NATO bombed the port of Tripoli and Muammar Gaddafi\'s compound near the capital.
Ashton is due to meet the head of the rebels\' National Transitional Council Mustafa Abdul Jalil before inaugurating the EU mission in a Benghazi hotel, an AFP correspondent said.
\"It is very important to be opening the EU Office in Benghazi which I announced to the European Parliament,\" Ashton said in a statement released by her office.
\"It will be an honour to meet the people who have been fighting for democracy and a better future for Libya,\" she added.
\"Opening an EU Office is an important signal of our support for the Libyan people. It is the EU putting words into action.\" She said she will also meet people from civil society groups and EU\'s international partners.
She will also visit central Benghazi, the epicentre of the protests against Gaddafi, and where pro-democracy demonstrations continue to occur regularly.

Her visit is a new boost for the rebels who have been lobbying world powers to formally recognise their interim council. Later Sunday she will address a press conference, her office said.
The European parliament has long argued for recognising the National Transitional Council, which so has been recognised only by France, Italy, Qatar and Gambia.
Just hours ahead of Ashton\'s visit NATO-led warplanes struck the Tripoli port and Gaddafi\'s immense compound of Bab al-Aziziya near the capital.
\"There were two raids on the port and Bab Al-Aziziya\", the residence of Gaddafi which has already been targeted several times, a Libyan regime official said about the early Sunday NATO strikes.
An AFP journalist heard two explosions just past midnight and a fighter plane flying over Tripoli at low altitude, indicating NATO\'s sustained air campaign against Gaddafi forces.
International correspondents were taken to Gaddafi\'s residence in a regime-chartered bus but unable to access the compound. \"They\'re expecting new raids, we don\'t have permission to go in,\" said after speaking to guards.
NATO took command of the air campaign on March 30 from French, US and British forces, who under a UN mandate launched air strikes on Gaddafi forces after they began crushing a rebellion against the strongman\'s more than 40-year authoritarian rule.

Late Thursday NATO also struck eight vessels of Gaddafi\'s navy, prompting the Libyan authorities of accusing the military alliance of seeking to place the country under \"siege.\"
NATO said it carried out \"precision strikes\" on vessels in the ports of Tripoli, Al-Khums and in Sirte --Gaddafi\'s hometown.
\"Given the escalating use of naval assets, NATO had no choice but to take decisive action to protect the civilian population of Libya and NATO forces at sea,\" said Rear Admiral Russell Harding, deputy head of the NATO-led air war after the strikes.
NATO said its airstrikes have restricted Gaddafi\'s movements.
\"This has limited Gaddafi\'s ability to give orders to his forces. It has also constrained his freedom of movement; effectively he\'s gone into hiding,\" NATO\'s Wing Commander Mike Bracken said in Brussels.
Meanwhile US President Barack Obama sent a letter to Congress on Friday, asking for political support of US action in the NATO assault, as he hit a technical 60-day deadline to get official congressional approval for use of his war powers.
The White House maintains that its support role to allies does not merit a formal declaration of war as is required by the US Constitution.
Also, African Union leaders will gather for an extraordinary summit in Addis Ababa on Wednesday-Thursday to discuss the Libyan conflict, the organisation announced.
Last month, pan-African body proposed a truce but it was rejected by rebels, who insisted on Gaddafi\'s departure.