The intelligence depicts a Libyan leader who “doesn’t feel safe anymore” in Tripoli because of stepped-up strikes by North Atlantic Treaty Organization aircraft and by battlefield gains by rebel forces, according to a senior U.S. national-security official briefed on the recent reports that the intelligence community has shared with the White House and other agencies.

The timing behind any possible move isn’t known and doesn’t appear to be imminent, a U.S. official said. Such intelligence has been seen before, although with less intensity. U.S. intelligence agencies have seen no indications that Col. Gadhafi intends to leave the country, the officials said…

U.S. officials cited intelligence showing the military campaign in Tripoli was taking a toll on the regime. “NATO’s efforts to reduce the Libyan regime’s capability to command and control military forces are having an effect,” the senior defense official said. “It is becoming increasingly difficult for him to operate inside Tripoli.”

Some U.S. officials, though eager for Col. Gadhafi’s departure from power, are now worrying that NATO and Libya’s African neighbors aren’t properly planning for the chaos that might result, in the same way that lack of planning for the fall of Saddam Hussein contributed to the long war that followed in Iraq.