(BRUSSELS) - Maltese European Commissioner John Dalli on Saturday defended remarks backing Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi that broke ranks with EU diplomatic leaders who want the veteran colonel out.

Dalli, who has enjoyed close commercial ties with Tripoli for a quarter of a century, told a Maltese business forum on Friday that he "didn't think (he) had the right, or anyone else, to make a statement on whether (Kadhafi) should step down."

"I think Kadhafi should make his own decisions. He has the assessment of the people, as he has said on TV," Dalli added. "I think Kadhafi has made the first attempt towards conciliation."

The 62-year-old commissioner also backed Kadhafi's suggestion that outside forces had manipulated media coverage of protests over the past fortnight, leading to the present situation of near-civil war.

"Sometimes doubt creeps into one's head when seeing people speaking perfect English and hoisted up by a group of people made to look like a crowd. I wonder if they might be shots 'created' for journalists," Dalli was quoted as saying by Maltese media.

Dalli's boss, EU commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, this week said it was time for Kadhafi "to go and give the country back to the people of Libya," with the EU's foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton also demanding that Kadhafi "stand aside."

Spokesman Frederic Vincent told AFP he had been in contact with Dalli on Saturday, and argued that "personal commentaries" on a country he knows well, "that's no secret," should not be confused with his core beliefs.

"He said a solution that respects human rights had to be found," Vincent insisted.

"That is totally in line with the democratic values that guide the commission.

"And in making some additional personal commentaries -- to a Maltese business audience, close neighbours remember -- he was only doing what millions of people around the world are doing."

Of protest images being staged to suit an anti-Kadhafi agenda, Vincent stressed: "I have spoken to the commissioner, and he was talking about images on both sides, pro-regime demonstrations as well."

Consultancy firm John Dalli & Associates was set up in 2004, with offices in Tripoli. Online autobiographical notes say it focuses on "introducing and facilitating the establishment of Western companies in the north African economies, especially Libya."

Dalli, who owns a home in Tripoli, worked for a Libyan-Maltese Joint Commission from 1987 to 1996 and 1998 to 2004 -- periods when Libya was under UN sanctions.

For political reasons, the consultancy business is now run by his family.