Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said on Monday the Libyan people will fight with him, asserting there has been no demonstration against his 41-year rule in the capital.

"All my people love me. They would die to protect me," Gaddafi told ABC's Christiane Amanpour.

Gaddafi said he could not step down because he is not a president or king.

Gaddafi, the Arab world's longest serving leader, has no official title or post in Libya, but he is known as the "Brotherly Leader and the Guide of the Revolution".

In the ABC interview, he blamed al-Qaida for emboldening young men to seize arms from military installations, adding he got astonished at the stance of the West.

"I am surprised that we have an alliance with the west to fight al-Qaida, and now that we are fighting terrorists they have to abandon us," he said.

He took aim at U.S. President Barack Obama, saying that Obama might have been give "misinformation".

This came as the U.S. military said it is moving naval and air forces into position around Libya as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Geneva that the naval units could be used for humanitarian and rescue missions.

"America is not the international police of the world," Gaddafi said.