I interviewed Col. Moammar Gadhafi this evening, when he told me he could not step down because he is not a president or king, and denied there were demonstrations against him anywhere in Libya. 
 
 "They love me. All my people with me, they love me," he said. "They will die to protect me, my people." 
 
 We conducted the interview at a beachfront restaurant in the Corniche, a coastal road on Tripoli's Mediterranean coast. Dressed in his flowing trademark robes and gold-rimmed aviator sunglasses, Gadhafi looked every inch the flamboyant character he's known to be. The longtime leader, who didn't seem to be surrounded by huge amounts of security, seemed relaxed and focused. Walking unabashedly into the restaurant, Gadhafi wanted to show he's not hiding in any underground bunker and that he believes he's still very much in charge. 
 
 Play 
 
 Gadhafi said he wanted to speak to the press to get the truth out, and he spent more than an hour with us trying to put forth his side of the story. 
 
 The Libyan leader laughed when I asked him whether he would step down in response to calls against violence by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama. 
 
 "Would anyone leave his homeland? Why would I leave Libya?" Gadhafi said, laughing. 
 
 He invited the United Nations and any other organization to come to Libya and do a "fact finding mission" and questioned how they could freeze assets, impose sanctions and an arms embargo, and implement a travel ban based purely on media reports alone. 
 
 The current uprising is the most serious challenge posed to Gadhafi's leadership since he came to power in 1969. The 11-day revolt has turned the international community against Gadhafi and spurred the United Nations to impose new sanctions against him. 
 
 Just today, a funeral for one of the protesters killed last week in Tripoli turned into a small anti-Gadhafi rally. At Tripoli's central hospital, a doctor confirmed that he received the bodies of nine people shot to death during protests. 
 
 But Gadhafi's version of the truth seemed to be at odds with what people have been talking about and reporting here, and he does not seem to fully comprehend the drama and the magnitude of what's going on around him. 
 
 He said he would not be leaving Libya, and denied -- in very strong terms -- using any force against his people. I asked him several times about reports that aerial bombardments had been used against protesters, but Gadhafi said they did not happen and that they had only bombed military and ammunition depots. 
 
 He seemed to be in complete denial about the protests against him, and that other big cities in Libya, particularly those in the east, had been taken by his opponents. 
 
 He simply rejected the notion that any walls were closing in on him. He denied he was besieged in the capital and said he would survive the current situation. 
 
 Gadhafi reiterated his mantra, saying he's not president and he's not in a formal position. Libya is ruled by the people, and he is one of the people, he told ABC News. 
 
 Gadhafi instead blamed al Qaeda for encouraging young people to seize arms from military installations. 
 
 He said the people who have taken over Benghazi in eastern Libya are terrorists and al Qaeda operatives. He doesn't believe people are demonstrating against him anywhere in Libya, and repeated the charge that those who are have been given hallucinogenic drugs -- a claim he first made in his televised speech broadcast last week. 
 
 Though he spoke mostly in Arabic, at times he became passionate and broke into excited English. 
 
 When I asked him about international fears that he might use chemical weapons or launch a scorched-earth campaign against vital oil supplies, Gadhafi responded with laughter. 
 
 "We solved all these WMD issues with the U.S. and Britain years ago. It's not reasonable to use against your enemy, let alone your own people," he responded. "The terrorists will try. At night, they try and go into the oil fields." 
 
 Gadhafi, who has ruled Libya for 41 years, said he felt betrayed by the United States. 
 
 "I'm surprised that we have an alliance with the West to fight al Qaeda, and now that we are fighting terrorists they have abandoned us," he said. "Perhaps they want to occupy Libya." 
 
 Libya gave up its weapons of mass destruction in 2003, after the invasion of Iraq, and the United States lifted sanctions and restarted business relations with Libya. 
 
 In 2008, then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Libya, marking the first such visit for an official of her position since 1953, and in 2009, Gadhafi visited the United States. 
 
 Libya's longtime dictator called Obama a "good man" but said he might have been given "misinformation." 
 
 "The statements I have heard from him must have come from someone else," Gadhafi said. "America is not the international police of the world." 
 
 U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice called Gadhafi's assertion that the Libyan people are behind him "delusional." 
 
 "When he can laugh in talking to American and international journalists while he is slaughtering his own people, it only underscores how unfit he is to lead and how disconnected he is from reality," Rice said. 
 
 ABC conducted the interview with two other reporters from the BBC and the Sunday Times of London. 
 
 Read Christiane Amanpour's earlier reporter's notebook from Libya here. 
 
 Follow Christiane Amanpour on Facebook and Twitter. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Colonel Gaddafi told the BBC that the protesters are members of al Qaeda 
 
 Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi has told the BBC he is loved by all his people and has denied there have been any protests in Tripoli. 
 
 Col Gaddafi said that his people would die to protect him. 
 
 He laughed at the suggestion he would leave Libya and said that he felt betrayed by the world leaders who had urged him to quit. 
 
 US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said the interview showed Col Gaddafi was "delusional" and "unfit to lead". 
 
 World foreign ministers earlier condemned attacks on Libyan civilians and the European Union imposed sanctions including an arms embargo, asset freeze and travel ban on Col Gaddafi and his close entourage. 
 
 Col Gaddafi is facing a massive challenge to his 41-year rule, with protesters in control of towns in the east. 
 
 'Mercenaries and thugs' 
 
 Col Gaddafi was speaking in an interview in Tripoli with BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen, US TV network ABC, and the UK's Sunday Times newspaper. 
 
 Col Gaddafi accused Western countries of abandoning Libya and said that they had no morals and wanted to colonise the country. 
 
 At the scene Colonel Gaddafi did not look like a man under pressure during the interview in a restaurant overlooking Tripoli's port. He was in a fairly relaxed mood throughout, looking as if he was relishing the biggest challenge he has had in almost 42 years as Libya's leader. Asked if he would follow the advice of Western leaders to quit, he said he no official position to give up. Foreigners didn't understand the Libyan system, Colonel Gaddafi said, claiming that power was already in the hands of the people. He had harsh words for the Western leaders who have been part of Libya's rapprochement with the outside world in recent years. He said he felt betrayed. The West, he said, wanted to recolonise Libya - and that was why it had been singled out. Excerpts: Gaddafi interview 
 
 When asked whether he would resign, he said he could not step down as he did not have an official position and insisted that the power was with the people. 
 
 Col Gaddafi challenged those, including UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who have accused him of having money abroad, to produce evidence. 
 
 He said he would "put two fingers in their eye". 
 
 Col Gaddafi said true Libyans had not demonstrated but those who had come on to the streets were under the influence of drugs supplied by al-Qaeda. 
 
 He said those people had seized weapons and that his supporters were under orders not to shoot back. 
 
 Ms Rice said Col Gaddafi was "frankly delusional". 
 
 "When he can laugh in talking to... journalists while he is slaughtering his own people, it only underscores how unfit he is to lead and how disconnected he is from reality," she said. 
 
 Earlier, foreign ministers who had gathered at a UN human rights conference in Geneva called for Col Gaddafi to go. 
 
 US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused Col Gaddafi and his followers of using "mercenaries and thugs" to attack unarmed civilians, and of executing soldiers who refused to turn their guns on fellow citizens. 
 
 "It is time for Gaddafi to go, now, without further violence or delay," she said. 
 
 Mrs Clinton also said that although US naval vessels were being repositioned near Libya there was no military action pending. 
 
 When asked whether the US would back Col Gaddafi going into exile, Mrs Clinton said: "If violence could be ended by his leaving... it might be a good step but we believe accountability must be obtained for what he has done." 
 
 The US Treasury said it had blocked $30bn (£18.5bn) in Libyan assets - the largest sum it had ever frozen. 
 
 US President Barack Obama met UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the White House on Monday and both expressed concern at the rising violence and called for a legitimately elected president. 
 
 Mr Ban said of Col Gaddafi: "He lost legitimacy when he declared war on his people." 
 
 'Blood of martyrs' 
 
 Although protesters have secured towns in the east, Col Gaddafi shows no signs of giving up in and around Tripoli. 
 
 In Tajoura, a suburb of the capital, about 400 people protested against him on Monday, chanting: "The blood of martyrs won't go to waste." Gaddafi supporters have reportedly tried to break up the protest by firing into the air. 
 
 Reporters say there have been long queues at banks in the capital as people tried to collect the 500 dinars ($410) promised to all families by the government in an attempt to quell the unrest. 
 
 There has been fighting in the coastal town of Misrata, 200km (125 miles) east of Tripoli, with Col Gaddafi's opponents repelling a government counter-attack. 
 
 Anti-government forces still control Zawiya, 50km west of Tripoli, but pro-Gaddafi forces are surrounding the city. One resident told Reuters: "We are expecting attacks at any moment... They are in large numbers." 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Jim Muir says volunteers are helping to provide food and drink to those who manage to cross Libya's border with Tunisia 
 
 Libyan air force planes also reportedly attacked ammunition depots in the eastern towns of Ajdabiya and Rajma. 
 
 Deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim said the authorities would attempt to talk to protesters in the east, but added: "If all attempts and efforts for dialogue... are exhausted, a very well guided force will be used in accordance with international rules." 
 
 About 100,000 people have fled anti-government unrest in Libya over the past week, the UN estimates. 
 
 The exodus of Egyptian workers from western Libya began on Wednesday, but has since been intensifying, says the BBC's Jim Muir at the Ras Ajdir border crossing with Tunisia. About 1,000 people an hour are crossing into Tunisia, he says.
– In Moammar Gadhafi's Libya, the only protesters are a few al-Qaeda-backed, drug-addled Libyans, the rest of his people love him, and he in fact can't step down—and certainly has no intention of doing so. The Libyan leader sat down with ABC's Christiane Amanpour and the BBC's Jeremy Bowen for an hour-long interview today. Some highlights: "They love me. All my people with me, they love me," he said. "They will die to protect me, my people." For world leaders who accuse him of hiding assets abroad, Gadhafi says he'll "put two fingers in their eye." Gadhafi strongly denies that government forces have used violence against Libyans, insisting that government airstrikes destroyed only barracks and ammunition depots. He insists that he cannot step down, as he has no formal position—Gadhafi says that the will of the people, alone, keeps him in power. Given his al-Qaeda theory, Gadhafi is taken aback by the US support for the demonstrators. "I'm surprised that we have an alliance with the West to fight al-Qaeda, and now that we are fighting terrorists they have abandoned us," he said. "Perhaps they want to occupy Libya." US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said in response that the interview proves Gadhafi is "delusional." "When he can laugh in talking to American and international journalists while he is slaughtering his own people, it only underscores how unfit he is to lead and how disconnected he is from reality."