"There was a social welfare net that already existed before the revolt started," said Theodore Karasik, director of research at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Analysis. "Even though in Benghazi they are now setting up this transitional government, the mechanism was already in place."

Amid the violence, billboard signs in Benghazi appeal to civic mindedness, calling on the population to respect private and public property, refrain from firing weapons in the city and re-open bakeries and pharmacies.

No Failures

"Given everything, they are doing better than expected," Marlowe said of the rebels' National Transitional Council. "We haven't seen a major failure."

The 31-member council has pledged to guarantee the freedom of expression and to hold free and fair elections once Qaddafi is removed. Those would be the first ever in Libya.

Schools and universities in Benghazi are closed as thousands of families are displaced and because the rebels depend on volunteers to fight Qaddafi's forces, which are locally referred to as the "Kata'ib," meaning battalions.

"We may lose a school year, but God willing we will win our freedom and our future," said Faten Belhoul, 15, who along with her younger sister is helping to clean Benghazi's streets.

Front Line

As shops and banks re-open, posters of the dead or missing remind residents of the front line, which now lies about 200 kilometers to the south of Benghazi, as do the occasional bursts of machine guns fired in training or by fighters celebrating an advance.
Crude oil for May delivery slid as much as 56 cents to $109.10 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract was at $109.21 at 10:17 a.m. Sydney time. The more actively traded June contract decreased 51 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $109.71.

Brent crude oil for June settlement traded at $123.12 a barrel, down 33 cents, on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract fell 2.5 percent last week to $123.45.

Unrest in Libya, which has cut crude production from Africa's third-biggest producer, is the bloodiest in a wave of uprisings that has toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia and spread to Algeria, Bahrain, Iran, Oman, Syria and Yemen.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told his newly appointed cabinet that plans to lift the country's 48-year-old state of emergency must be completed next week while in Libya rebels said they expected to receive heavy weapons in their battle to overthrow Muammar Qaddafi.