Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has promised to fight any attempt to impose a no-fly zone on the country.

In a TV interview the dictator said the move would merely be an excuse by the West to seize Libya's oil deposits.

Gaddafi spoke to Turkey's state-run TRT Turk television, responding to US and British plans for a response to his armed crackdown on rebels, including imposing a no-fly zone to prevent his planes from attacking them.

Gaddafi claimed such a move would lead Libyans to understand the foreigners' aims to seize oil and take their freedoms away. He said if that happened "Libyans will take up arms and fight."

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