Libya's government has announced it will halt all military operations in the country hours after the United Nations Security Council backed a no-fly zone over the country.
Moussa Koussa, the Libyan foreign secretary, said his government was interested in protecting all civilians and foreigners, in a statement televised on Friday.
"We decided on an immediate ceasefire and on an immediate stop to all military operations," he said, adding "[Libya] takes great interest in protecting civilians".
Koussa said because his country was a member of the United Nations it is "obliged to accept to UN Security Council's resolutions".
But Anita McNaught, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Tripoli, said the statement was "very carefully crafted ... very deliberate, almost forensic. Clearly the Libyans have been pouring over their United Nations charters to decide which bits to disagree with and on the whole they can't find very much."