Kadhafi marks 40 years in power

LIBYA: Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi marked the 40th anniversary of the bloodless coup that brought him to power, with celebrations attended by African, Arab and Latin American leaders but largely ignored by the West.

At the end of a two-hour show late Tuesday retracing the 40 years since Kadhafi ousted King Idriss in 1969, a brief video clip showed the return to Libya last month of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, but the western delegations present did not react.

Kadhafi's party kicked off around midnight on Monday at the former US military base of Matega near Tripoli with a two-hour spectacle that paid homage to the leader himself and featured music, illuminations and dance.

Entitled "A Knight and Men," the display was marked by a procession of some 30 floats one with a giant picture of Kadhafi in military uniform and performances by dancers and horsemen from Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and Ukraine. Guests included Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, African leaders who had earlier attended an African Union summit in Libya, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, his Dominican counterpart Leonel Fernandez, Serbian leader Boris Tadic and Philippine President Gloria Arroyo.

Later on Tuesday, there was a military parade of detachments from African, Arab and eastern European armed forces, while dozens of aircraft, including French and Italian jets, flew overhead. "Sixty heads of state or government are attending," a Libyan official told AFP. Among those sighted by AFP were Jordan's King Abdullah II, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and royals from Kuwait and Qatar.

TRIPOLI, AFP