Libyan officials said around seven civilians were killed in a NATO air strike in eastern Tripoli in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Reporters were taken by Libyan government officials to a residential area in the Arada district of Tripoli and saw a body pulled out of the rubble of a destroyed building.

"There was intentional and deliberate targeting of the civilian houses," deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim told reporters at the site. "This another sign of the brutality of the West."

The building looked as if it had been under construction and mostly vacant.

At a local hospital, reporters were shown three bodies, including a child, which government officials said were people who been killed in the air strike.

One of the bodies was covered with debris and dust.

Reporters were also shown a wounded child.

It could not be immediately verified whether the three bodies had come from the destroyed building in the Arada district. Arada is a neighbourhood in the Souq al-Juma district, which is known for anti-Gaddafi sentiment.

Two weeks ago, a Libyan government officials were accused by a staff member at the same hospital in a note passed to journalists of falsely labelling a child hurt in a car crash as the victim of a NATO attack.

Source: ANTARA