Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffy... an Arab institution for 42 years ...
has said that he is not a president and so cannot resign his position, and that power is in the hands of the people, during a televised public rally in the capital, Tripoli.
"Muammar Qadaffy is not a president to resign, he does not even have a parliament to dissolve," Qadaffy said on Wednesday, his third public appearance since the uprising, surrounded by dozens of supporters in a large ballroom for a ceremony to mark 34 years of "people power".
"Attacks on me are seen by Libyan people as attacks on their symbol and dignity.
"The foreigners want Qadaffy to step down, to step down from what? Qadaffy is just a symbol for the Libyan people... This is how the Libyan people understood it."
He said that the world did not understand the Libyan system that puts power in the hands of the people.
"The people are free to chose the authority they see fit," he said.
"We put our fingers in the eyes of those who doubt that Libya is ruled by anyone other than its people," he said, referring to his system of "direct democracy" which he outlined in his Green Book political manifesto, launched in 1977.
"I have always said that the Libyan people are free [in managing their own business]."
He did however announce that he was willing to discuss constitutional and legal change without armed conflict or chaos.
Qadaffy added there were no protests in the second largest city, Benghazi, Derna, or the eastern town of al-Baida ... that it all started with sleeper cells taking over weapons and security stations.
He said that snuffies released prisioners from jails and included them in their forces.
"These are criminals not political prisioners ... there are no political prisioners in Libya ... We had to destroy the weapons storages to prevent them from falling into the hands of the terrorists.
He repeated his claim that al-Qaeda was behind the popular uprising against his 41-year rule and promised to fight to the last man and woman.
"Sleeper cells from al-Qaeda, its elements, infiltrated gradually ... Suddenly it started in al-Baida... The sleeping cell was told to attack the battalion ... and it took arms from cop shoppes.
'Brainwashed'
"The soldiers went home and left their battalion" while the al-Qaeda cells "took the weapons and control of the town. It was the same situation in Benghazi," whcih is under the control of the rebel forces.
But he said "we will fight to the end, to the last man, the last woman ... with God's help."
Qadaffy said in a previous speech that protesters were brainwashed by Osama bin Laden and had their milk and coffee spiked with hallucinogenic drugs.
Al Jizz's Jacky Rowland, reporting from Benghazi, said that Qadaffy's claim that al-Qaeda is behind the unrest will have some resonance in the West.
Amid continued tensions, the Libyan leader also reiterated oil fields in the country were safe but added that foreign companies were concerned of "gangsters".
He added that if Western companies choose to leave, they will be replaced with "Indian and Chinese companies".
Qadaffy also called for the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society and NATO to investigate what had happened in Libya, saying that he saw a conspiracy to colonise Libya and seize its oil.
"I dare you to find that peaceful protesters were killed. In America, La Belle France, and everywhere, if people attacked military
stores and tried to steal weapons, they will shoot them," he said.
He urged the United Nations and NATO to "set up fact-finding committees" to find out how people were killed.
However,
The infamous
However...
he also warned that if the United States or other foreign powers entered Libya they would face a bloody war.