This comes as international pressure mounts on the Libyan leader to stop the violent crackdown on the demonstrators.
European countries have readied a set of economic sanctions against the country, while Barack Obama, the US president, has slammed the use of "outrageous" force against protesters.
A special session of the United Nations Human Rights Council is also set to take place on Friday to discuss the use of extreme force against peaceful protesters.
On Thursday, anti-government protesters appeared to be in control of the country's eastern coastline, running from the Egyptian border through to the cities of Tobruk and Benghazi, the country's second largest city.
Franco Frattini, the Italian foreign minister, said on Wednesday that protesters also held the city of Cyrenaica, while reports indicate that the anti-government forces' control could stretch as far west as the city of Misurata, where machine gun and heavy arms fire has been reported.
Other towns that appear to no longer be under Gaddafi's control include Derna and Bayda, among others across the country's east.
'People in control'
Soldiers in the cities controlled by the protesters have switched sides, filling the void and no longer supporting Gaddafi's government. In a statement posted on the internet, army officers stationed in Misurata pledged their "total support" for the protesters.
Major-General Suleiman Mahmoud, the commander of the armed forces in Tobruk, earlier told Al Jazeera that the troops led by him had switched loyalties.
"We are on the side of the people," he said. "I was with him [Gaddafi] in the past but the situation has changed - he's a tyrant."
Thousands gathered in Tobruk to celebrate their taking of the city on Wednesday, with Gaddafi opponents waving flags of the old monarchy, honking cars and firing in the sky.
"In 42 years, he turned Libya upside-down," said Hossi, an anti-government protester there. "Here the leader is a devil. There is no one in the world like him."
Armed opponents of the government are also patrolling the highway that runs along the country's Mediterranean coast. Al Jazeera's correspondent said that even in the towns under anti-government forces' control, gangs of pro-Gaddafi militias had been reported to be roaming the streets at night.
"From what I've seen, I'd say the people of eastern Libya are the one's in control," Hoda Abdel-Hamid, Al Jazeera's correspondent who is in Libya, reported. She said that no Libyan officials had been manning the border where Al Jazeera's team crossed into the country.
Capital paralysed
Tripoli, the Libyan capital, meanwhile, is said to be virtually locked down, and streets remained mostly deserted, even though Gaddafi had called for his supporters to come out in force on Wednesday and "cleanse" the country from the anti-government demonstrators.
He described citizens who opposed him as "rats" and "mercenaries".
Libyan authorities said food supplies were available as "normal" in the shops and urged schools and public services to restore regular services, although economic activity and banks have been paralysed since Tuesday.
London-based newspaper the Independent reported, however, that petrol and food prices in the capital have trebled as a result of serious shortages.
'Advisory role'
In the first comments from a Gaddafi family member regarding a post-Gaddafi Libya, Saadi, the Libyan leader's third son, told London-based newspaper the Financial Times that his father would play an advisory role in any new regime.
"My father would stay as the big father who advises," he said. "After this positive earthquake, we have to do something for Libya... We have to bring in new blood to govern our country."
He claimed that 85 per cent of the country was "very calm" and that army battalions were ready to strike at protesters.
On Wednesday, an army general told Al Jazeera that two pilots had ejected from their air force jet near the town of Agdabia after refusing to bomb civilians in Benghazi, which has been a stronghold of the anti-government protesters.
In addition to desertions by many army troops, Gaddafi has also been faced with several diplomats in key posts, as well as cabinet ministers, refusing to recognise his authority and calling for him to be removed.
Hundreds killed
Foreign governments, meanwhile, continue to rush to evacuate their citizens, with thousands flooding to the country's borders with Tunisia and Egypt. The United States, Britain, France, Italy, Turkey, China, France and India, among others, have made arrangements for their nationals to leave the country.
While authorities have placed tight restrictions on reporting from the country, rights groups say that hundreds of people have been killed in the violent crackdown on anti-government protests that began on February 17. Witnesses say that government-employed foreign mercenaries have been patrolling the streets of cities, firing indiscriminately at people.
The use of warplanes against civilian targets has also been widely reported.
The Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights put the number of people killed at 640, though Nouri el-Mismari, a former protocol chief to Gaddafi, and Frattini, the Italian foreign minister, put the number closer to 1,000.
Denying these figures as "fabrications," the Libyan interior ministry on Wednesday said the death toll since the violence began is only 308.
International oil prices have hit two-and-a-half year high on the back of instability in Libya, one of Africa's largest oil producers.
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