Gaddafi: 'Libyans love me'

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has told reporters that he is loved in his country after denying that demonstrations are taking place against him.

The 68-year-old leader urged the United Nations or any other organisation to conduct a "fact finding mission" in Libya and questioned how nations could freeze assets, impose sanctions and implement a travel ban based on media reports alone.

Speaking to a small number of reporters, Gaddafi said: "All my people love me. They would die to protect me."

His comments have been described as "delusional" by one official at the United Nations.

Ambassador Susan Rice spoke at the White House following a closed-to-press Oval Office meeting between President Obama and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Rice said the situation in Libya took up a "significant portion" of that meeting.

"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," she said.