Pro-government demonstrators expressing their support for the Libyan leader in Zawiyah

Libyan leader Muammar Al Qathafi said he would die for his people and would never leave them if he is allowed to lead the fight. He delivered his remarks over the telephone in a Libyan state television transmission and directed them to a crowd in Az Zawiyah, a city 50 kilometres west of the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

It was Al Qathafi's third speech to the people in as many days. Saturday's follows his defiant one broadcast on Friday in which he addressed particularly a massive rally in Zlitan.

He said Saturday that his country will never surrender in the face of assaults by rebels and a NATO air campaign. In each of his recent speeches he addressed inhabitants of a specific town under his control.

To chants of support for Libya's leader, he said the NATO air- strikes on Libya must stop to save civilian lives. These most recent speeches and rallies come after Libya's main opposition group was officially recognised by more than 30 nations, including the U.S., as Libya's legitimate government.

With thousands demonstrating their support, Al Qathafi promised that Libya would keep fighting.

Zawiyah was controlled by the rebels early in the five-month long conflict, but has been retaken by pro-government forces.

The centre still bears scars of the fighting, with burned out and shattered buildings overlooking the cheering crowds swathed Libya's national colour since the First of September Revolution of 1969.

Addressing NATO, he said: "Here is Zawiyah. Where are the ... traitors and the agents that you depended on? Where are those you bought with your money, you brainwashed?" he asked,.

"Zawiyah can't be ruled by agents, nonbelievers and traitors who are seeking help from the cross," he added.

"I will die for my people, I will never leave my people who have sacrificed themselves for me. If you allow me to lead the fight, I will lead the fight and die for my country," he said.

He went on to say: "We need to go to Benghazi and Misurata to liberate it. The people are calling me, saying 'come and help us'. Families are telling us 'we are being used as human shields in Misurata, women are getting killed'.

"The Libyan people will die for its oil. We will not leave our oil for these gangs," he declared.

Once again, Al Qathafi described the opposition that is trying to oust him from his leadership after over a 41-year rule, as “worthless traitors” and rejected suggestions that he was about to leave the country.

"They said Al Qathafi will go to Honolulu," he said. "This is funny: to leave the graves of my ancestors and my people? Are you serious?" He vowed that he would “Never leave this land sprinkled with the blood of my ancestors who fought Italian and British colonialists,"

"These rats have taken our people hostage in Benghazi, Misurata and the western mountains, using them as human shields," Al Qathafi said of insurgents in the rebel capital in the east and port city in the west.

"Five million armed Libyans will march on them and liberate the occupied towns as soon as the order is given," he added.

"After we gave our children as martyrs, we can't backtrack, or surrender or give up or move an inch," he said, his voice booming over loudspeakers in the centre of town. "Rest assured in your tombs, our martyrs, we will not betray you ever."

The rally was staged in the centre of Zawiyah, a city once under rebel control in the early weeks of the revolt against Al Qathafi's rule and only taken back after a brutal battle.