Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi has said he is in a place where Nato bombs "cannot reach", in an audio message broadcast on state television.
He also condemned as cowardly an attack on his compound in Tripoli on Thursday.Libyan officials said the strike killed three people. Nato officials said a command-and-control bunker was hit.
Col Gaddafi's statement came after Italy's foreign minister said he had probably been wounded in an air strike and was believed to have left Tripoli.
Two loud explosions rocked the capital Tripoli on Friday night, as jets were heard overhead, witnesses said. There is no word on any damage.
'Good health... high spirits' Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said he heard the report that Col Gaddafi was injured from the Roman Catholic bishop of Tripoli, Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli.
"He told us that Gaddafi is very probably outside Tripoli and is probably also wounded. We don't know where or how," said Mr Frattini.
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End Quote Col Muammar Gaddafi Libyan leaderDeath, infamy and disgrace are for the treacherous agents and their cowardly masters”
He also said international pressure was causing "the disintegration of the regime from the inside".
The Vatican's spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, told the BBC that he could not confirm that Bishop Martinelli had made the comments.Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said the report was "nonsense". He insisted Col Gaddafi was had not been harmed by any strikes and was "leading the country day by day" from Tripoli.
"The leader is in very good health, high morale and high spirits."
'Crusader cowards' On Friday evening, state TV unexpectedly broadcast a message from Col Gaddafi which sought to prove that he was alive and well.
He thanked those outside Libya who had "expressed deep and strong concern, enthusiasm and love for me by carrying out all these contacts to enquire about my safety after hearing about the crusader, cowardly and treacherous missile attack" on the Bab al-Aziziya compound.Continued
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