TRIPOLI - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi Monday called upon his supporters to gear up for a campaign to liberate rebel-held towns.

In an audio message aired by Libyan television, the embattled colonel appealed that his followers fight to free the country "inch by inch from traitors and NATO" forces.

Gaddafi made the call amid rumors that he was about to leave the country for exile and allegations that rebels fighting to topple him had captured a strategic town west of the capital.

The North African country has been embroiled for months in the deadliest of a spate of turbulence sweeping West Asia and North Africa. Some Western and Arab powers militarily intervened in March under the name of a UN resolution adopted to protect Libyan civilians, and NATO took over control of the mission weeks later.