NATO: Gadhafi regime 'clearly crumbling'

BRUSSELS — NATO says Moammar Gadhafi's regime is "clearly crumbling" and the time to create a new democratic Libya has arrived.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a statement early Monday that the sooner Gadhafi "realizes that he cannot win the battle against his own people, the better."

"The Libyan people have suffered tremendously under Gadhafi's rule for more than four decades. Now they have a chance for a new beginning," Fogh Rasmusen said in a statement.

NATO will continue to monitor Gadhafi's military units and will bomb them if they make "any threatening moves towards the Libyan people."

NATO warplanes have flown nearly 20,000 sorties in the past five months, including about 7,500 strike attacks against Gadhafi's forces.