Hugs from Chavez as Gaddafi's Libya reaches 40

Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi attends a celebration of the 40th anniversary of his coming to power at the Green Square in Tripoli September 1, 2009. Military bands, 400 dancers, aerobatic planes and fireworks are set to electrify a hot and drowsy Tripoli as Muammar Gaddafi throws Libya's biggest party to mark four decades since taking power. [Agencies]

TRIPOLI: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was guest of honour at a military parade to kick off six days of festivities in Libya marking 40 years since Muammar Gaddafi took control of the desert country in a bloodless coup.

Chavez swept into Tripoli's landmark Green Square to mix with dignitaries and joke with the press before greeting the veteran Libyan leader who arrived dressed in military uniform.

The two leaders known for their anti-US rhetoric hugged then sat together, flanked by African heads of state including Tunisia's Zine al Abidine Ben Ali and Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and dozens of army top brass.

Military bands from 17 nations including France, Italy and Australia filed past as Italian aerobatic jets zoomed over the Mediterranean in Gaddafi's honour, trailing smoke in the red white and green of Italy's national flag.

Armoured vehicles and trucks laden with missiles trundled past in clouds of smoke in a parade lasting two hours. Tanks kicked up the warm tarmac under Green Square's harsh floodlights, palm trees and banks of green Libyan flags.

The celebrations planned across Libya are designed to show the world that the long-isolated oil exporter is open again for business after years of heavy sanctions, organisers said.

Relations with the West reached a low point in the 1980s when demonstrators sacked the US embassy in Tripoli and the United States, accusing Libya of organising the bombing of a disco in Berlin, bombed Tripoli, killing more than 40 people including Gaddafi's adopted daughter. Libya retaliated by striking English off its school curriculum.

Libya has cut support for armed revolutionary groups and made peace with Washington by scrapping a programme to build nuclear weapons and paying compensation for bombings and other attacks for which it was blamed by the West.

Foreign companies are back searching for oil or vying for contracts to build roads, railways, phone networks and schools as Libya tries to make up for lost time.

Gaddafi was a 27-year-old army signals officer when he took power with a group of fellow officers while King Idris was abroad for medical treatment.

He insists his system of grass-roots rule by town hall committee will ultimately prevail across the world.

Controversy still stalks Gaddafi, with the United States and Britain angry at the "hero's welcome" given a former Libyan agent freed by Scotland last month from a life sentence for the Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people.

Libya invited dozens of Western heads of state but the leaders of France and Britain, whose governments have struck up warm ties with Gaddafi since sanctions ended, stayed away.

The United States said it sent an embassy representative to part of the festivities. Italy's Silvio Berlusconi visited Libya on Sunday to mark the first anniversary of a friendship agreement.

Officials from Switzerland stayed away in solidarity with two Swiss nationals prevented from leaving Libya, Swiss authorities said. The two businessmen have been caught up in a diplomatic crisis since the brief arrest of Gaddafi's son Hannibal in Geneva in July 2008.