France and Britain have called out to those loyal to Gaddafi and urged them to drop the dictator before it is too late. A joint statement by President Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister David Cameron encouraged Gaddafi supporters to defect.

Recently, a number of people have already left the inner circle of Gaddafi, including Moussa Koussa, Libya's foreign affairs minister, who arrived in UK last Wednesday.

The defections underscore the increasing tension in Gaddafi's camp as allied airstrikes crippled the military machine that the colonel has steadily deployed against the rebels.

But Gaddafi still has many supporters out there.