MISRATA, Libya — Misrata, the only rebel-held city in western Libya, has asked that NATO troops be sent to fight alongside rebels currently holding off Libyan forces, a local government representative said Tuesday.

“If they don’t come, we will die,” Nouri Abdul Ati, a member of the 17-member ruling body in Misrata, told reporters as heavy machine gun fire, rockets and mortars exploded in the near distance. “Grad rockets don’t leave anybody alive,” he added, referring to the truck-mounted rockets used by the Libyan military.

The local council in this besieged city sent its plea via letter a week ago to the national opposition government in Benghazi in eastern Libya. The letter urged that NATO or U.N. troops be asked to defend Misrata against Moammar Gadhafi’s forces, Ati said. The council has yet to answer Misrata’s rebel officials.

“We need a force from NATO or the U.N. on the ground now,” Ati said at a house set amid date palms, as the night’s regular roar of heavy shelling commenced. “We did not accept any foreign soldiers on our land, but that was before we faced the crimes of Gadhafi.”

But in Washington, State Department officials stated that the United States wouldn’t be sending U.S. ground troops under any circumstance, adding that its European allies were free to do what they want.

Asked about a European Union plan to send ground troops to allow access for humanitarian aid, Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, said: “Our partners are sovereign nations and make their own decisions.”

Ati said Misrata’s rebels want the French and British military fighting alongside the informal Libyan paramilitary units.

He was emphatic that the city, assaulted on all sides by Gadhafi, was running out of time, as supplies dwindled and as the attacks killed and wounded more people. “We are asking on the basis of Islamic and humanitarian principles for someone to come and stop the killing,” Ati said.

Doctors in Misrata have estimated the siege-related death toll in the city at 1,000, including 600 at hospitals and others not brought by families to the morgue.

“The whole Arab world is calling for intervention of the West for the first time in history,” he said. “We don’t have a problem in principle with the West in Misrata. We know they want the oil of Libya. So what, we will sell them the oil.”

Britain, meanwhile, took the lead Tuesday, saying it is sending up to 20 senior soldiers who will help organize the rebels, many of whom have had little military training or battle experience. However, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain would not arm the opposition or assist in military operations.

Britain has already sent non-lethal support, including 1,000 sets of body armor and 100 satellite phones.

“As the scale of the humanitarian crisis has grown, so has the urgency of increasing our efforts to defend civilians against the attack from Gadhafi forces,” Hague said.

Misrata, the third-largest city in Libya, has been bombarded for nearly two months by Gadhafi’s forces.