Libya's fugitive leader Muammar Gaddafi has dismissed as lies and psychological warfare the speculation that he has fled south to neighbouring Niger.
The comments, made in a telephone call to a pro-Gaddafi TV channel in Syria, apparently came from inside Libya.
Col Gaddafi also promised his forces would defeat Nato and the National Transitional Council (NTC).
Earlier, Niger said it was considering how to deal with him if he decided to enter the country to seek refuge.
Niger would decide later whether to accept Col Gaddafi or hand him to the International Criminal Court (ICC), the country's foreign minister told the BBC.
There has been speculation that Col Gaddafi may go to Niger after groups of loyalists fled there in recent days.
Libya's transitional authorities have asked Niger not to take him in.
Niger's foreign minister says the [former Gaddafi aides] are in the capital Niamey. That would be the logical thing for them to do: the authorities want to assure security, insofar as they can in this vast and mainly desert nation.
Niamey would be the place where they have most of their security operatives to do that. If anyone wanted to hide or melt away into the desert, it would be relatively easy for them to do so without the Niger authorities knowing where.
The fact is that Niger really is in a dilemma. It is a poor country, relative to Libya, and for many years now, whole tissues of relationships have built up with Col Gaddafi's Libya. His organisations and agencies have been investing here, in terms of business and aid operations and so on. Hundreds of thousands of Niger citizens are seeking work in Libya.
Niger recognises the ICC, which is seeking the arrest of Col Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam, and his former intelligence chief Abdullah Sanussi.
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