Washington DC: Syrian President Bashar Al Assad in a US television interview released Wednesday denied ordering the killing of protesters, saying that "only a crazy person" would do so.
Speaking to ABC News, Assad questioned the UN death toll of more than 4,000 in the unrest and said most victims were government supporters.
He also brushed aside international sanctions and said Syria had launched democratic reforms.
Al Assad - speaking to veteran journalist Barbara Walters in a rare interview to foreign media - said he was not responsible for the nine months of bloodshed and blamed any excesses on individuals rather than his regime.
'We don't kill our people'
"We don't kill our people," ABC News quoted Al Assad as saying.
"No government in the world kills its people, unless it's led by a crazy person." "There was no command to kill or be brutal," Al Assad said.
Witnesses and human rights groups say Syrian forces have used intense force and torture to crush the biggest threat to the Assad family's four-decade rule.
The United Nations estimates that more than 4,000 people have died since the uprising began in March, part of a wave of pro-democracy movements sweeping the Arab world that by now have toppled leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
'Who says UN is credible?'
Al Assad dismissed the death toll, saying: "Who said that the United Nations is a credible institution?"
"Most of the people that have been killed are supporters of the government, not the vice versa," Al Assad said, giving a figure of 1,100 dead soldiers and police. Al Assad said that his government was moving ahead with reforms but stated flatly: "We never said we are democratic country."
"It takes a long time," Al Assad said. "It takes a lot of maturity to be full-fledged democracy."
Syria has faced growing international condemnation, including Western sanctions and the threat of similar action by the Arab League and neighbouring Turkey. Al Assad told ABC News such threats did not worry him, saying: "We've been under sanctions for the last 30, 35 years. It's not something new."
