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Washington: Slain Libyan despot Muammar Gaddafi secretly salted away an estimated staggering $ 200 billion in bank accounts, real estate and corporate

investments around the world before he was killed.

The Libyan dictator, who faced an ignominious but gruesome death, had hidden huge amounts of cash, gold reserves and investments and the amount is double that Western governments previously had suspected, the Los Angeles Times reported.

It claimed that Western officials have struggled all year not only to identify Gaddafi's money but also to convince countries such as India, China and Russia to seize Libyan investments as required by the UN Security Council resolutions.

If the value proves accurate, the paper said, Gaddafi will go down in the history as the most rapacious as well as one of the most bizarre leaders of the world on a scale with the late Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire or the late Phillipino president Ferdinand Marcos.

The newspaper said that US administration officials were stunned last spring when they stumbled upon $ 37 billion in Libyan regime's accounts and investments in the US. They quickly moved to freeze them, before Gaddafi or his aides could shift them.

Similarly, governments in France, UK, Germany and Italy have seized control of more than $ 30 billion held in these countries.