Thousands of Libyans in the eastern city of Tobruk have been celebrating after breaking free from Muammar Gaddafi.

About a week into the uprising, and support for the 41-year regime is cracking from the top down.

Several senior diplomats have publicly turned their back on Gaddafi.

The interior and justice ministers resigned over the excessive use of violence against the anti-government protesters.

And crucially, significant numbers of the military are reported to have refused to carry out Gaddafi’s orders to kill Libyan people.

One army base near the Egyptian border was pictured deserted. The airport at Al Bayda also fell into rebel hands.

A former Libyan army major claimed the whole of the east of the country was no longer under Gaddafi’s control.

However, a dissident Libyan diplomat at the UN said it was a different story in the west.

Ibrahim Dabbashi said: “They are attacking people in all the cities in western Libya. Certainly the people have no arms. I think the genocide has started now in Libya. I think Gaddafi’s statement was just a code for his collaborators to start genocide against the Libyan people.”

The EU joined growing international calls condemning Gaddafi’s brutality.

The Italian government spoke of 1,000 dead so far as a credible figure as pictures emerged purporting to show the preparation of graves in Tripoli.

Another estimate reckons it could be ten times that figure.