Gadhafi blames west

TRIPOLI, Libya - Embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi accused Western nations of wanting to control Libya's oil in a television interview in which he also branded rebels seeking his ouster as "traitors".

"The colonialist countries are hatching a plot to humiliate the Libyan people, reduce them to slavery and control the oil," Gadhafi said in the interview broadcast early on Wednesday on Libyan television.

In a separate interview screened by France's LCI television, the leader accused the West, especially France, of plotting to "colonize" his oil-rich nation.