Brussels, 20 April (AKI/Bloomberg) - A Nato commander said “there is a limit” to the alliance’s ability to stop the Libyan regime’s shelling of Misrata, as Britain sent a team of military advisers to assist rebels fighting to end Muammar Gaddafi’s 42- year rule.

Gaddafi’s troops have been using artillery and rockets in Misrata, under siege for about 50 days, with rebels holding part of the city and the port area that is their only supply link. Unicef, the UN Children’s Fund, said a ship carrying first aid kits, drinking water and other supplies for up to 25,000 people was expected to reach the port today, and the World Health Organization described Misrata Hospital as “overwhelmed,” with 120 civilian patients in need of emergency evacuation.

Nato reported its warplanes hit a mobile rocket launcher, which was firing into the city, and a loyalist convoy of armored vehicles heading there. Nato Brigadier General Mark van Uhm said that Gaddafi’s forces fire “indiscriminately” and that allied airstrikes seek to protect civilians under the United Nations Security Council mandate.

“But there is a limit to what can be accomplished by airpower to stop fighting in a city,” he said yesterday at a press conference at Nato headquarters in Brussels. Nato must limit strikes in urban areas to avoid inadvertently causing civilian casualties, he said.

The Italian government is helping Libyan rebels sell oil from opposition-held parts of the country, Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini said at a press conference in Rome after meeting with the head of Libya’s rebel council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil.

The rebels have agreed to honor existing treaties between Italy and Libya, Frattini said. Oil exports from Libya, which has Africa’s biggest oil reserves, dropped by about 1.3 million barrels a day to a “trickle,” the Paris-based International Energy Agency said last month.