ABBASI

Muammar Gaddafi was the longest-serving leader in both Africa and the Arab world, having ruled Libya since he toppled King Idris I in a bloodless coup in 1969 aged 27.

He may have been ridiculed by some for his flamboyant dress-sense and female bodyguards, but Col Gaddafi was also a skilled political operator who moved swiftly to bring his country out of diplomatic isolation.

It was in 2003 - after some two decades of pariah status - that Tripoli took responsibility for the bombing of a Pan Am plane over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, paving the way for the UN to lift sanctions.

Months later, Col Gaddafi's regime abandoned efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction, triggering a fuller rapprochement with the West.

Col Gaddafi in the early years of his rule in 1975

That saw him complete a transition from international outcast to an accepted, if unpredictable, leader.

But his behaviour throughout the uprising of his people - from an early appearance in a golf cart with an umbrella, to the increasingly frantic audio messages - only led to him being widely discredited and even mocked.

Col Gaddafi was born in the desert near Sirte in 1942, and in his youth he was an admirer of Egyptian leader and Arab nationalist Gamal Abdel Nasser.

He married twice and had eight children.

Colonel Gaddafi spoke from his golf cart in an early message to protesters

He first hatched plans to topple the monarchy at military college. He went to Britain for further army training before returning to the Libyan city of Benghazi and launching his coup there on September 1, 1969.

He laid out his political philosophy in the 1970s in his Green Book, which charted a home-grown alternative to both socialism and capitalism, combined with aspects of Islam.

On foreign trips, he set up camp in a luxury Bedouin tent and was accompanied by a 40-strong clan of armed female bodyguards who he insisted must be virgins - claiming they were less easily distracted than their male counterparts. He even once transported a camel to Paris on an official visit.

A tent was also used to receive visitors in Libya, where Col Gaddafi sat through meetings or interviews swishing the air with a horsehair or palm leaf fly-swatter.

"Women should be trained for combat, so that they do not become easy prey for their enemies," he once said.

Colonel Gaddafi's clan of female bodyguards became his trademark

His passion for female assistants extended to his blonde Ukrainian nurse, without whom he refused to travel anywhere in the world.

The discovery at Col Gaddafi's compound of a photograph album filled with pictures of former US secretary of state Condoleeza Rice only further confirmed the "eccentric" label he came to acquire.

Aside from his unusual lifestyle, Col Gaddafi and Libya were rejected by the international community because of the leader's backing of a number of militant groups, including the Irish Republican Army and the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

US president Ronald Reagan labelled him a "mad dog", and America responded to Libya's alleged involvement in attacks in Europe with air strikes on Tripoli and Benghazi in 1986.

Col Gaddafi was said to be badly shaken by the bombings, in which his adopted daughter was allegedly killed.

Colonel Gaddafi was known for his extravagant dress sense

Spurned in his efforts to unite the Arab world, from the 1990s Col Gaddafi turned his gaze towards Africa, proposing a "United States" for the continent.

He adopted his dress accordingly, sporting clothes that carried emblems of the African continent or portraits of African leaders.

Fashion magazine Vanity Fair even labelled him "a sartorial genius of our time" in a 2009 feature on his fashion sense.

At the turn of the millennium, with Libya struggling under sanctions, Col Gaddafi began to bring his country in from the cold.

It took several years but he achieved his goal and in 2008 reached a final compensation agreement over Lockerbie and other bombings, allowing normal ties with Washington to be restored.

Tony Blair met Col Gaddafi in his tent near Tripoli in 2004

"There will be no more wars, raids, or acts of terrorism," he said at the time.

At home, the Libyan leader presented himself as the spiritual guide of the nation, overseeing what he said was a version of direct democracy.

Prior to the uprising of anti-Gaddafi fighters, Col Gaddafi appeared to have retained absolute power.

When protesters took to the streets for peaceful demonstrations in February, he responded with military force.

But the response backfired, only adding further fuel to the cause of those opposed to Col Gaddafi's iron grip.

Used to ruling over a country where dissent was ruthlessly crushed and the media strictly controlled, Col Gaddafi remained defiant until the last.

His audio broadcasts became increasingly erratic and more frantic sounding, but always carried the same basic message - that he would rather die than release his stranglehold on the Libyan people.

Col Gaddafi with Vladimir Putin in his tent

Throughout his years in power, hundreds of people were imprisoned for opposing him, according to Human Rights Watch, with some sentenced to death.

Torture and disappearances were also reported - but many of those who survived have since been released by anti-Gaddafi forces.

Although Libya's economy was opened up to foreign investment in the past, there was little in the way of reform.

Many Libyans felt they had not benefited from the country's vast oil and gas reserves, with public services poor and corruption rife.

What happens to the country in the wake of Col Gaddafi is up for discussion - but after 42 years under the same leader, there will certainly be dramatic changes in the pipeline.