Gadhafi Accuses West of Plot to 'Colonize' Libya

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi warned on Wednesday that the region would be engulfed in chaos, spreading to Israel's doorstep, if al-Qaida takes control of his country.

"If al-Qaida manages to seize Libya, then the entire region, up to Israel, will be at the prey of chaos,” he said in an interview with Turkey's public TRT television channel.

"The international community is now beginning to understand that we have to prevent Osama Bin Laden from taking control of Libya and Africa," he added.

Gadhafi said Libyans will "take up arms and fight" if no-fly zone is imposed on his country.

Gadhafi stood firm, accusing the West of plotting to seize his country's oil and the insurgents of being traitors backed by al-Qaida, as his forces pounded rebel-held areas.

"The colonialist countries are hatching a plot to humiliate the Libyan people, reduce them to slavery and control the oil," he said on state television.

He addressed his remarks to the people of Zintan, 120 kilometers southwest of Tripoli, which is in rebel hands but surrounded by his own troops.

Gadhafi made similar accusations against Western countries, especially France, in an interview aired by the French LCI television channel Wednesday.

Britain and France have made the most aggressive calls among Western powers for a no-fly zone to stop Gadhafi's troops attacking opposition forces, and a senior U.N. official in New York said the Security Council had discussed the matter.

The United States says any such move would need to have full United Nations backing, which is far from assured.

Paris has also praised the national council set up by the rebels, two of whose members addressed the European Union's parliament on Tuesday asking for world recognition and a no-fly zone.

As pressure grew from inside Libya and elsewhere in the Arab world for a no-fly zone, the White House said Obama and Cameron agreed to press forward with planning, including at NATO, on a range of possible responses.

Measures under consideration included surveillance, humanitarian assistance, enforcement of the arms embargo and a no-fly zone, the White House said.

In Cairo, U.S. ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz and other U.S. officials met members of the opposition seeking to topple Gadhafi, the State Department said, declining to identify them.

Foreigners fleeing the violence are still crossing from Libya into Tunisia, though U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Gutteres said Tuesday they had been cut to fewer than 2,000 people a day because of effective supervision by the Libyan authorities.