Kampala — Tripoli is not covertly working with Uganda's cultural leaders to undermine or topple the ruling NRM government, Libyan ambassador Abdalla Bujeldain has said.

Speaking on Tuesday at Kampala Serena Hotel during a belated event marking 40 years of the Fatah Revolution that brought Col. Muammar Gaddafi to power 40 years ago, Mr Bujeldain described as "revolutionary" the relationship between his President and Uganda's Yoweri Museveni that "one cannot smash, never!"

"Some people try to see the subject referred to as some kind of intervention into the internal political issues of a country about the forum for kings and sultans," he said, suggesting the cultural leaders have a crucial role to play in fostering African unity.

The reference to the AU was particularly striking since it is understood that the reported fall out between the two leaders, dating back to 2007, derives from fundamental differences on how to shape the future and governance of the proposed continental body.

Whereas Mr Museveni, like former South African President Thabo Mbeki, preferred a gradual approach to birth the continental government through regional economic blocs, Col. Gaddafi and others, on the other hand, want a hurried approach that places such a government under his stewardship.

Some African leaders, polarised by the ideological divide, now view Col. Gaddafi with suspicion on the backdrop of Libya's heightened mobilisation and lavishing of several - perhaps hundreds of African cultural leaders ostensibly to support a rushed United States of Africa.

This may explain why the Libyan leader in his first ever speech to the UN General Assembly in New York last week said that he was speaking as well on behalf of some 135 kings, dozens of whom recently blessed his self-given title of "King of Kings."

President Museveni, in a televised address in the wake of the Sept. 10-12 pro-Buganda kingdom riots said that some foreign country, understood to be Libya, was mobilising and sponsoring traditional leaders to undermine his regime. Some 24 people died in the three-day mayhem in and around the capital.

Yesterday, ambassador Bujeldain said: "I can give a guarantee that this forum [of cultural leaders] is not against any Head of State or country. This is a basic social and cultural activity and we must benefit from these kings and sultans for our African Union."

Col. Gaddafi's increased hobnobbing with Ugandan monarchs has unnerved officials in Kampala and chipped away the Executive's control over them. Intelligence officials say Tripoli recently wired some $1.3 million (Shs2.6b) to bankroll activities of the Uganda Traditional Leaders' Forum, a grouping of countrywide cultural leaders, secretly formed at a hotel in Masindi District in June.

Some Buganda royals, among them Prince David Wasajja, named as beneficiaries of the Tripoli funding bonanza, have since denied picking the oil dollars as alleged by the State.

Mr Bujeldain said the bilateral relations between Uganda and Libya, that invested more than $600 million (Shs1.2 trillion) here last year, is "excellent" explaining why Mr Museveni and his counterpart Col. Gaddafi held private talks in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. That meeting agreed to prevent traditional leaders from directly participating in politics because "politics spoils monarchies and monarchies spoil politics."

"This was an answer to some of these newspapers that try to spoil this excellent relation," ambassador Bujeldain said, "The meeting, I think, gives them good answer and a slap on their face."

Analysts say President Museveni worried much about Libya's alleged covert involvement here since his 1981-86 NRA guerilla war was partly propped by Tripoli.

In his 1997 book: Sowing the mustard seed, Mr Museveni agrees to obtaining guns and ammunitions from Col. Gaddafi to fight the Obote II government but said argues that internal NRA leadership capacity, and not the Libyan, propelled the rebels to power.