Pressure is intensifying on fugitive Libyan despot Muammar Gaddafi as rebels prepared for a final showdown.
They were still hoping he may surrender without a fight but the dictator continued to issue warlike statements.
Although remaining in hiding, he issued a defiant appeal to his supporters to continue to fight.
"We will fight them everywhere," he said. "We will burn the ground under their feet ... Get ready to fight the occupation."
The National Transitional Council's representative in the UK, Guma El-Gamaty, said Tripoli was "almost" secure now.
"Gaddafi is still at large but he is hiding, he is isolated, he is almost surrounded in possibly one of two small places where we think he is," he said. "We think it is just a matter of time before he is either apprehended or, if he resisted arrest, he might be killed."
Rebel fighters have pushed closer to Gaddafi's home town of Sirte, despite the extension of a deadline for the town's surrender and negotiations with tribal leaders aimed at avoiding bloodshed.
Khaled Zintani, a spokesman for the rebels in the mountain town of Zintan, said: "Military action will be the last option, because after the fall of the capital, we are not in a hurry."
Tribal elders in Sirte had asked that a delegation from Zintan be sent to Sirte to help with negotiations, he said, because of a long history of bad blood with rebels from towns closer to Sirte. The deadline for the surrender of Sirte has been extended until next Saturday.
Meanwhile British military activity has continued as part of efforts to keep pressure on Gaddafi. The Ministry of Defence said the RAF had destroyed a military command and control installation in Bani Walid during an armed reconnaissance patrol on Thursday.
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