TRIPOLI, March 9: Muammar Qadhafi accused the West on Wednesday of wanting to seize Libya’s oil and warned a no-fly zone would backfire as his forces pounded rebel lines and a top aide jetted into Cairo.

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

He again accused Al Qaeda of being behind the insurrection that began on February 15 and called on inhabitants of Benghazi, the rebels’ main base, to “liberate” the eastern city.

Libya’s government offered a $410,000 bounty for the capture of Mustafa Abdel Jalil, head of the rebel national council which declared itself the North African country’s sole representative in Benghazi on Saturday.

In a separate television interview with Turkey’s public TRT channel, Qadhafi said, paradoxically, he was in favour of a move by the West to impose a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent his forces from attacking rebels from the air.

That would allow “Libyans to see through the real intentions (of the international community) — to seize our oil — and then they would take up arms (to defend the country)”.

Speaking in Brussels on the eve of talks among Nato defence ministers, a senior US official said Washington “believes that Nato is the natural choice for any military action” in Libya.

But in Paris a French diplomat insisted that “alongside Britain, we are working on what could be done without Nato. The sight of the Nato flag (in Libya) would be provocative”. The discussions came as strong blasts rocked Libya’s rebel-held eastern oil town of Ras Lanuf, forcing Qadhafi loyalists back.

A mechanic said a pipeline had been blown up, while an opposition spokesman said air raids had struck several oil installations.

Scores of rebels packed into dozens of vehicles and retreated into Ras Lanuf after several hours of sustained shelling and at least three air strikes west of the town.

It was the second time in as many days the rebels had been routed in front of the government-held hamlet of Bin Jawad, some 30 kilometres (18.6 miles) from Ras Lanuf.

Fighting in eastern Libya has killed at least 400 people and wounded 2,000 since February 17, medics said.

“There have been 400 dead since the beginning in Derna, Baida, Brega, Benghazi, Ras Lanuf and Bin Jawad,” Salah Jabar, a medical co-ordinator for cities held by anti-Qadhafi protesters in the east, told journalists in Benghazi.

“We counted the people who are dead and wounded in our hospitals,” said colleague Jibril Huwaidi, asked about higher death tolls given by the United Nations and rights groups since the Libyan conflict began.

In Zawiyah, just west of Tripoli, the battle for control of the strategic oil city was undecided.

“The revolutionaries control the centre of Zawiyah and Qadhafi’s forces are surrounding it. It’s 50-50,” a long-term Moroccan resident said after crossing the border into Tunisia.

“There was no one in the streets, the town is completely deserted, and there are snipers on the roofs,” he said, adding that he did not know which side they were on.

Libyan television reported “massive” pro-Qadhafi demonstrations were taking place in the centre of Zawiyah. —AFP