The UN said today it has sent food for 50,000 people to west Libya as aid groups scrambled to reach trapped civilians and rebels put the death toll from two months of fighting at 10,000.

One month after NATO allies dropped their first bombs on Muammar Gaddafi's forces, there appeared no end in sight to what experts are now warning will be a prolonged military stalemate in which civilians casualties will mount.

And with thousands clamouring to escape the besieged rebel city of Misrata, Britain said it will charter ships to pick up 5000 migrant workers after a ferry rescued nearly 1000 yesterday.

The UN's World Food Program said in Geneva it has opened up a lifeline from Tunisia.

"We've managed to open up an humanitarian corridor into western Libya," Emilia Casella, the WFP spokeswoman told journalists.