9 May 2012 Last updated at 05:13 ET

Libya profile

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Libya, a mostly desert and oil-rich country on the southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea with an ancient history, has more recently been renowned for the 42-year rule of the mercurial Col Muammar Gaddafi.

In 2011, the colonel's autocratic government was brought to an end by a six-month uprising and ensuing civil war. The country is currently governed by the National Transitional Council that emerged from the rebellion and has pledged to turn Libya into a pluralist, democratic state.

A former Roman colony, Libya saw invasions by Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, Turks and more recently Italians before gaining independence in 1951.

Oil was discovered in 1959 and made the state - then a kingdom ruled by the head of the Senussi sufi order - wealthy.

Col Gaddafi came to power by overthrowing King Idris in a coup in 1969, ten years after independence, and Libya embarked on a radically new chapter in its history.

At a glance

• Politics: Interim government has pledged to work towards stability and democratic elections following violent overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi.
• Economy: Libya has large reserves of oil and gas
• International: The West backed the uprising against Col Gaddafi with an aerial bombing campaign, while Russia and China condemned the intervention.

Country profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring

After initially seeking to emulate the Arab nationalism and socialism of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, Col Gaddafi's rule became increasingly eccentric.

Ideas put forward in his Green Book aimed to set forth an alternative to both communism and capitalism. Col Gaddafi called the new system a jamahiriya, loosely translated as a "state of the masses".

In theory, power was held by people's committees in system of direct democracy, without political parties, but in practice, Col Gaddafi's power was absolute, exercised through "revolutionary committees" formed of regime loyalists.

After the 1988 bombing of a PanAm plane above the Scottish town of Lockerbie, which the US blamed on Libya, the Gaddafi regime was shunned by much of the international community.

But in 2003 it underwent a dramatic rehabilitation by taking formal responsibility for the bombing, paying compensation and handing over two Libyan suspects, on of whom, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, was convicted for the attack. The UN responded by lifting sanctions.

But in 2011, the world once again turned against the Libyan government over its use of violence against the popular uprising against the colonel, inspired by the anti-authoritarian protests sweeping through the Arab world.

The UN Security Council passed a resolution authorising Nato air strikes to protect civilians. After months of near-stalemate, the rebels stormed into Tripoli August 2011, and several weeks later Col Gaddafi was killed when his last holdout was overrun.

The National Transitional Council (NTC) and its interim government now face the formidable challenge of imposing order, disbanding the former rebel forces, rebuilding the economy, creating functioning institutions and managing the pledged transition to democracy and the rule of law.

In October 2011 the NTC said it would hold elections to a Public National Conference in June 2012. The body will appoint an interim government and a constituent authority to draft a constitution.

Tension between the emerging government and local militias, ethnic clashes in the remote south and moves in the oil-rich east to re-establish a degree of regional autonomy all threatened to disrupt the timetable for elections in early 2012.