Rio de Janeiro, March 21 (DPA) President Barack Obama Sunday defended the struggle for universal rights but said that the US does not intend to "impose its will" on other countries, at a time when the US is involved in a military operation in Libya.

"No one nation should impose its will on another," Obama said in Rio de Janeiro.

"But we also know that there are certain aspirations shared by all human beings: we seek to be free and to be heard. We yearn to live without fear or discrimination, to choose how we are governed and to shape our own destiny."

Obama mentioned how "the struggle for these rights", which he insisted are universal, is currently unfolding across the Middle East and North Africa. He said the Libyan people, in their uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, are taking "a courageous stand against a regime determined to brutalize its own citizens".

"From the beginning, we have made clear that the change they seek must be driven by their own people," Obama said. "The future of the Arab World will be determined by its people."

He said there is no certainty as to how this process will end: "But I do know that change is not something that we should fear. ...Wherever the light of freedom is lit, the world becomes a brighter place."