French spy shot dead Gaddafi on Nicolas Sarkozy's order: report

London: A French secret serviceman shot dead Libya's former strongman Muammar Gaddafi and not a lynch mob of rebels as he lay trapped and cornered in a sewage pipe in his home town of Sirte.

The French secret agent is said to have infiltrated a violent mob which had encircled the Libyan leader on October 20, 2011, in a sewage pipe in his home town, and shot him in the head, the Daily Mail reported.

Quoting diplomatic sources in the North African capital, the Mail said the motive apparently was to stop Gaddafi being interrogated about his highly suspicious links with Nicolas Sarkozy, who was the President of France at that time.

The paper said Sarkozy who once welcomed Gaddafi as the "Brother leader" during a state visit to Paris was said to have received millions of dollars from the Libyan despot to fund his election campaign in 2007.

Sarkozy, the paper said, was not the only Western leader to have close links with Gaddafi and claimed that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Gaddafi regularly and was helping to facilitate multi-billion pounds business deals.

Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra also reported that the French agent was acting on the express orders of Sarkozy.

"Since the beginning of NATO support for the revolution, strongly backed by the government of Nicolas Sarkozy, Gaddafi openly threatened to reveal details of his relationship with the former president of France, including the millions of dollars paid to finance his candidacy at the 2007 elections," the paper said.