While former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak "was playing tennis in Sharm el-Sheik, Qaddafi .... spent his time building up his power base," said Jon Marks, a Libya expert with London-based Cross-border Information.

"Every time you look at the different strands of Libyan society ... you see that there's one puppetmaster, and it's Qaddafi," he said.

Qaddafi turns 69 sometime this year - the month and day of his birth in 1942 is uncertain - and he came to power in a coup that ousted King Idris in 1969. One of the foundations of the revolution was a rejection of communism and capitalism - shunning anything linked to Libya's colonial history, and a determination to chart his own course.

With no constitution, the blueprint for governance was his "Green Book" - a slim volume of his philosophies that inspired an entire research department at one of Libya's main universities. Plaster representations of the book have been erected in cities across Libya.

in addition, no one branch of Libya's feared security apparatus has a monopoly on power.

One son - Mutassim - was picked to head one branch, while another son, Khamis, headed what analysts say is a British-trained unit. A third son, Seif Al-Islam, has become the Western face of the regime and was put forth as the reformer, heading a variety of youth organizations.

All three were left to jockey for power while Qaddafi was depicted on billboards across Tripoli gazing into the distance.

Occasionally, he weighed in. For example, he once issued calls to dismantle the government because of corruption and distribute oil wealth directly to the people.

Each statement left observers scrambling for clues as to which son was more in favor.

All the while, Qaddafi watched, careful to remain firmly in control and ready to act in those rare occasions when the fear inspired by the security forces was not enough to maintain order.

The image of a leader unafraid to use force is one Libyans know well.

David Fuller's view I assume that Qaddafi's position is untenable and that he will soon be replaced, probably by a tribal power sharing arrangement if a further civil war is to be avoided. Hopefully the Libyan people will be better off under whatever new government emerges.

Meanwhile, the current situation is dominating global stock market sentiment and investors do not like the uncertainty, mainly regarding oil supplies from Libya which recently averaged 1.6m barrels a day, about 1.8% of global output.

The price of crude oil has risen again today - NYME (weekly & daily) and Brent (weekly & daily), and news services tend to headline the more extreme forecasts, which are based more on people's fears rather than insightful analysis. My guess is that speculative funds are piling into oil futures and that they will jump back out even more quickly on the first sign that unrest in the Middle East settles down.

Whatever government next rules in Libya, we can be certain that they will want to sell as much oil as possible. The western companies which have been managing Libya's oil fields should be able to return their teams as quickly as they have removed them, once safety seems reasonably assured.

For a considerably more detailed assessment of the Libyan civil war and its influence on various markets, please listen to the Daily Audio.