Lucy Layton triumphed over 22 other international entrants to take the title Miss Net World, in a competition which aimed to boost the image of the north African dictatorship and celebrate young women's dreams of international accord and glamour.

Swimsuits were off limits, but the competitors were able to strut the catwalk in Libyan army uniforms and T-shirts sporting their national flags and heart-framed portraits of the Libyan president Muammar Gadafy instead.

"I want Miss Net World to be an intelligent contest," the pageant's founder, Omar Harfouch, told the Egyptian paper Al-Ahram.

"As the girls are beautiful, and every human being is sensitive to female beauty, I have given the pageant the slogan 'Beauty will save the world'.

"For that reason, we decided to hold the event in Libya ... Libya has definitely chosen to live in peace with all other countries, according to its leader's recent speeches."

He has suggested that future competitions should be held in Afghanistan and North Korea.

Col Gadafy did his best to be voted Mr Congeniality, sending three private jets to Europe to pick up the organisers and entrants and entertaining them as they toured Libya.

They visited the ruins of his former home - which the US bombed in 1986, killing his adopted daughter - to release a flock of white doves following a speech by Miss Net USA on the importance of peace.

Libya is beginning to renew links with the west following the suspension of UN sanctions imposed in 1992 when it refused to give up two suspects to the Lockerbie bombing. More than a million people voted online in the contest.