Factbox: Latest developments in the Libyan conflict

Rebel fighters secure an area during fighting in Abu Slim in Tripoli, August 25, 2011.

(Reuters) - Following are the latest political and military developments in the Libyan crisis.

* Muammar Gaddafi taunted his Libyan enemies and their Western backers on Thursday as rebel forces battled pockets of loyalists across Tripoli in an ever more urgent quest to find and silence the fugitive strongman.

* Rumors of Gaddafi or his sons being cornered, even sighted, swirled among excitable rebel fighters engaged in heavy machinegun and rocket exchanges. But two days after his compound was overrun, hopes of a swift end to six months of war were still being frustrated by fierce rearguard actions.

* After a meeting of officials in Istanbul, the Contact Group of allies against Gaddafi called on Libyans to avoid revenge. It also urged the United Nations Security Council to pass a resolution freeing up cash quickly.

* Libyan rebels stormed Tripoli's Abu Salim district, one of the main holdouts of forces loyal to Gaddafi in the capital, after NATO air strikes on a building in the area on Thursday.

* The Libyan rebel government hopes to restart oil exports within two weeks and reach full volumes in about a year, Ali Tarhouni, the official in charge of financial and oil matters told Reuters from Libya's oil ministry in Tripoli.

* NATO said it conducted 141 air sorties on Wednesday, 48 of them strike sorties to identify and hit targets.

* It said key targets hit on Wednesday included:

-- in the vicinity of Tripoli: two military storage facilities, one military heavy equipment truck, two anti-aircraft guns, one surface-to-air missile support vehicle, one multiple rocket launcher and one radar

-- near Sirte: surface-to-surface missile support vehicles

-- in the vicinity of Okba: one surface-to-air missile

-- in the area of Bani Walid: one anti-tank rifle.

* Since NATO took command of air strikes on March 31, its aircraft have conducted 20,262 sorties including 7,635 strike sorties. NATO members participating in air strikes include France, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Belgium, Italy and the United States.

* Sixteen ships under NATO command are patrolling the central Mediterranean Sea to enforce a U.N. arms embargo. On Wednesday, 13 vessels were hailed to determine destination and cargo. Two were boarded and one diverted.

* A total of 2,326 vessels have been hailed, 238 boarded and 11 diverted since the start of the arms embargo.