No democratic state 'except Libya on the planet'

New York:  Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi lectured a US audience on democracy on Thursday and said Libya is the only real democracy in the world.

Via a video link, Gaddafi addressed an unprecedented gathering of US and Libyan academics prompted by a thaw in relations since the country decided in 2003 to abandon nuclear weapons and took responsibility for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

He touted Libya's political system as superior to "farcical" and "fake" parliamentary and representative democracies in the West."

"There is no state with a democracy except Libya on the whole planet," Gaddafi said to the conference at Columbia University in New York.

Libya's Jamahiriyah system, under which Libyans can air their views at "people's congresses," is genuine democracy, said Gaddafi, who spoke through a translator and was dressed in purple robes and seated at a desk in front of a map of Africa.

The US Central Intelligence Agency's World Factbook describes Libya's government as: "Jamahiriyah [a state of the masses] in theory, governed by the populace through local councils; in fact, a military dictatorship."

Gaddafi said Libya's new openness would not lead Libyans to covet what they do not have on the contrary, he said, the rest of the world would soon be emulating Libya.

"Countries like the United States, India, China, the Russian Federation, are in bad need of this Jamah-iriyah system," he said. "This is a saviour to them."

Challenged by the US moderator about freedom of speech, Gaddafi said every Libyan was free to express his opinions at the congresses and that was a better forum than a newspaper.

Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East Programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, one of two US moderators, said some of Gaddafi's comments might have sounded jarring to Americans.

Gaddafi, in a rare moment of self-criticism, lashed out at what he described as "backward" societies in the Middle East, arguing that government heavy-handedness in dealing with political opposition stemmed from the violent nature of that dissent.

"You ask us, 'Why do you oppress opposition in the Middle East?"' Gaddafi said.