Define terrorism, urges Gaddafi

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has entered the debate on terrorism - telling a TV interviewer that the US might just as well bomb London if it is serious about fighting terrorism.

"If the United States wants seriously to eradicate terrorism, the first capital that should be pounded with cruise missiles is London," Colonel Gaddafi said on the Arabic satellite news channel al-Jazeera.

If the United States knows who attacked it, then it would have the right to retaliate against him

Colonel Gaddafi

"It is the shelter of terrorism," he added, referring to charges that Islamic militants suspected of violence are protected by Britain's policies on political asylum.

Colonel Gaddafi, who said that the US had the right to respond to the 11 September terrorist attacks, called for an international conference to define terrorism and then fight it.

Right to respond

He said that while no one had claimed responsibility for the attacks, the United States could attack Osama bin Laden if it were sure he was responsible.

"If the United States knows who attacked it, and if he admits to attacking the United States, then it would have the right to retaliate against him," the Libyan leader said.

Despite the confrontation, struggle, and disagreement with the United States, we must show solidarity with the American people

Colonel Gaddafi

"It would have the right to do whatever necessary without consulting the UN Security Council."

Sticking to that "principle", Colonel Gaddafi said that he would have attacked the White House after the US raids on Tripoli in 1986, had he had missiles.

But he put the two countries' longstanding dispute aside, as he did in the days after the attacks in the US, in offering his sympathy to Americans.

"Despite the confrontation, struggle, and disagreement with the United States, we must show solidarity with the US people," he said.

Defining terrorism

It is unreasonable for a responsible UN member state not to fight terrorism

Colonel Gaddafi

However, he said that the international community needed to agree on a definition of terrorism before the world could join together in fighting it.

"We also disagree with one another on what happened in the United States, what is happening in Afghanistan, and what is even happening in Iraq," he said. "This is because we have not so far defined terrorism."

"If we know what terrorism is, we will all resist it," he added.

"It is unreasonable for a responsible UN member state not to fight terrorism."

Again, this statement had a typical twist in the tail.

Colonel Gaddafi said that for him, terrorism is "the threat of fleets, sanctions, embargoes".

"The largest terrorist organization now is the UN Security Council," he said.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.