Gaddafi, who celebrated the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed(PBHU), chose the religious fete to open Gaddafi National Mosque which is situated in the capital's Old Kampala Hill.

The actual ceremony took place in a football stadium.

The mosque is reputed to be one of the largest in Africa and has a sitting capacity of at least 12,000 people. Construction was funded by the World Islamic Call Society, a Libyan non-governmental organisation.

The event in the capital's football stadium was also attended by presidents Mwai Kibaki of Kenya, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Omar Bongo of Gabon, Rwanda's Paul Kagame, Abeid Karume of Zanzibar, Abdullahi Yusuf of Somalia and Ismael Omar Guelleh of Djibouti.

Others included Pierre Nkrunziza of Burundi, Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali and Guinea's Prime Minister Lansana Kouyate, according to an official statement.

Uganda's ex-leader Idi Amin ordered building a great mosque on Kampala Hill in n the early 1970s, but the structure was never completed because money that had been earmarked for its construction was embezzled.

Agencies