Daily Mail

Muammar Gaddafi today launched a bizarre attack on the United Nations during a shambolic speech to its General Assembly.

The Libyan leader’s address got off to an inauspicious start after a mass walkout by world leaders who believed he should not be given the floor.

America was represented by a couple of mid-ranking diplomats after Hillary Clinton left the chamber. Gordon Brown had also stayed away from the event.

However, Gaddafi appeared undaunted and strode to the podium in brown and tan Bedouin robes, a shiny black pin in the shape of Africa placed over his heart.

He began by praising Barack Obama, who had just given his first speech as US President to the forum.

But proceedings quickly went downhill. Speaking rapid-fire Arabic, Gaddafi said the organisation was responsible for failing to prevent some 65 wars that had erupted since its foundation in 1945.

He then went on to call for the abolition of the veto power of the five permanent members or expanding the body with additional member states to make it more representative.

‘It should not be called the Security Council, it should be called the "terror council," he said.

At one point he also claimed that swine flu had been deliberately manufactured for military purposes.

Gaddafi – who was making his first appearance at the UN – repeatedly brandishing a document and railing against the ‘inequality’ of member states.

He claimed the original purpose was that all members – large and small – should be equal and that this was had never been the case.

The Libyan dictator’s speech followed Obama’s first General Assembly address, but a recess of some 15 minutes was called by the Libyan president of the General Assembly so diplomats could be take new seats.

Gaddafi laid a yellow folder in front of him and opened some of the handwritten pages as he received scattered applause.

The chamber was half-empty as began his speech, holding a copy of the UN Charter in his hands.

For a moment, it seemed he lost his place while he sorted through the pages of his yellow folder.

He appeared to be speaking without a text, looking at a set of notes before him on handwritten pages. He was not reading from the TelePrompTer.

Earlier in the day, Gordon Brown told BBC Radio 5 Live he was unlikely to be present for Gaddafi’s speech, and renewed his criticism of the hero’s welcome given to bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi when he was released on compassionate grounds last month.

The move is a marked contrast from his much criticised silence on the issue in the wake of Al Megrahi’s release.

‘I don’t think I will be there for that,’ the PM said today. ‘I have made my views very clear to the Libyans.

‘The way that Megrahi was received in Libya was completely unacceptable. I think it did a lot of damage to the Libyans’ reputation in the international community.’

Downing Street officials stressed leaders did not routinely attend each others’ speeches, and Mr Brown would be missing other significant addresses.

Mr Brown insisted that Britain still believed that Megrahi was responsible for the bombing, despite the his continued protestations of his innocence.

‘Let us be in no doubt that Megrahi is regarded by us as the person responsible for that crime,’ he said.

However he pointed to the changed international context since Megrahi was convicted of the attack.

‘Twenty years ago, Libya was seen by all of us as a leading player in international terrorism,’ he said.

‘Over these last ten years, we have seen them try to move to a better position in the international community by renouncing nuclear weapons and at the same time renouncing engagement in international terrorism.’

The Prime Minister denied that the fact that there would be no one-to-one meeting with US President Barack Obama during his time at the UN and the G20 summit in Pittsburgh represented a snub.

‘I do say that the special relationship is strong, it continues to strengthen,’ he said