Libya's Gaddafi says fears Obama assassination

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Tuesday called U.S. President Barack Obama a "flicker of hope in the middle of the imperialist darkness," but said he feared the president could be assassinated.

Gaddafi, known for his controversial statements, did not say who might want to kill Obama but gave the examples of the assassinations of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, as well as black rights leader Martin Luther King.

"I fear that they could liquidate this young man or force him to submit to their imperialist policies," Gaddafi told a university gathering of his supporters in the coastal city of Sirte, without specifying who might put Obama under pressure.

Flicker of hope

"Obama is a flicker of hope in the middle of the imperialist darkness," the Libyan leader said, but added: "There is a fear that they would liquidate him as they liquidated Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln."

Gaddafi, who is the African Union chairman, had offered to work with Obama to sustain security, stability and prosperity in Africa and elsewhere.

Gaddafi praised Obama for breaking with what he said was the previous American foreign policy that dictated to the rest of the world what to do to serve U.S. interests.

"So far his political discourse has been reasonable, breaking with the arrogance that was prevalent in statements by former U.S. presidents," he said after Obama spoke in favor of a Palestinian state and reached out to Muslims.

I fear that they could liquidate this young man or force him to submit to their imperialist policies

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi

Giving up nukes

He also hailed "the commitment of the United States to a world without nuclear weapons," after Obama pledged in a speech in Prague on Sunday to lead the quest for a world without atomic weapons.

Gaddafi renounced ambitions to build weapons of mass destruction in 2003, resulting in the return of his oil-rich North African nation to the international fold.

Gaddafi, who took power in 1969 in a military coup in his oil- and gas-rich North African state, was shunned for decades by the West, which accused him of supporting terrorism.

His ties with Western countries have improved since Libya announced in 2003 it was scrapping weapons of mass destruction programs and agreed to pay compensation for families of victims of bombings of U.S. and French airliners.

So far his political discourse has been reasonable, breaking with the arrogance that was prevalent in statements by former U.S. presidents

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi