Beauty queen of the desert

Lucy Layton says Colonel Gaddafi was "really nice"

As any aspiring star knows, winning a beauty contest is a good career move.

But Lucy Layton is in the unusual position of being crowned a beauty queen in Libya.

The 20-year-old from Digswell in Hertfordshire won the title Miss Net World after travelling to the north African country with 22 other women from around the world.

She spent a few days visiting medinas and villages and met the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

It is an experience the model and singer takes in her stride: "Hopefully it will help with publicity in the future," she told BBC NewsOnline.

Having been put forward for the internet-based competition by friends, she found she was due to fly to Libya and, accordingly, did her research.

Since I was three I wanted to be on stage

Lucy Layton

"I rang the Foreign Office before I left," she said.

"I know you can't get a holiday to Libya in your local travel agent.

"I had learned about the politics and I was being looked after by Colonel Gaddafi himself, so I was pretty safe."

It must have made for an unusual beauty pageant.

The contestants were shown Colonel Gaddafi's home, bombed by US warplanes in 1986.

"That was a bit of a shocking experience because I've never walked into a bombed house before," said the blonde-haired Miss Layton.

But as far as meeting Colonel Gaddafi goes, Miss Layton is not concerning herself too much about the politics.

Twenty years ago, Colonel Gaddafi was feared by Western nations

"I don't see it as black and white," she said. "I followed the events leading up to and after the Lockerbie bombing.

"He is trying to make positive steps to join the rest of the world."

She says she got the impression women in the predominantly Muslim country enjoyed equal rights.

"I probably saw the shiny side of things but my parents have friends who run a business out there and I asked them what they thought.

"They haven't had any problems while they've been there."

It is all grist to the showbiz mill though - Miss Layton has an entertainment background and says, "Since I was three I wanted to be on stage".

She has better credentials than many. She can boast Jack Warner - the actor famous for playing Dixon of Dock Green - in the family and her father Paul Layton was a member of the 1970s group New Seekers, remembered for wanting to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.

Union Jack

His daughter has been in a girl band and "recording her own songs since I was 13". Now she hopes music stardom beckons.

She is currently taking a year off after getting four A-levels and is keeping herself busy modelling and meeting people who may help her to her ambition of a recording contract.

With a meeting with the legendary leader of a socialist dictatorship on the itinerary, the organisers of more conventional Miss World competitions must have been left scratching their heads.

"We went to visit Colonel Gaddafi with our t-shirts with his picture printed on," Miss Layton explained.

She accessorised her outfit with a neck chocker of a Union Jack.

Apparently, Colonel Gaddafi said he thought it was strange to see the two images so close together.

With remarkable understatement, Miss Layton mused: "Yes, it wasn't a typical beauty contest."