FACTBOX: Libya celebrates 40 years of Gaddafi rule

(Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi throws Libya's biggest party to mark the 40th anniversary of his coming to power in September 1969.

Here are some key facts about the country. * ECONOMY - Libya's economy is likely to expand by 6.5 percent in 2009, up from 6.3 percent last year, Libyan newspaper Oea reported in May, quoting a Central Bank official.

-- OPEC member Libya has emerged from isolation by the West since publicly renouncing weapons of mass destruction programs in 2003.

-- Foreign energy companies are now returning to help it boost hydrocarbon production and upgrade outdated infrastructure. As oil output picks up, the government has been plowing surplus revenues into renewing roads, railways, schools, hospitals and houses.

-- The economy depends primarily upon revenues from the oil sector, which contribute about 95 percent of export earnings, about one-quarter of GDP, and 60 percent of public sector wages.

-- The non-oil manufacturing and construction sectors, which account for more than 20 percent of GDP, have expanded from processing mostly agricultural products to include the production of petrochemicals, iron, steel, and aluminum.

-- Climate and poor soils severely limit agricultural output, and Libya imports about 75 percent of its food.

INDICATORS - Libya ranks 52nd out of 179 countries in the latest U.N. human development index. Life expectancy was 73.6 in 2006. The adult literacy rate was 86.2 percent in 2006.

* SOME HISTORY: Libya gained independence in September 1951, after a decade of British and French administration, as a federal monarchy of three regions under King Mohammed Idris.

-- On September 1, 1969, Gaddafi, then a 27-year-old army officer, led a military coup which deposed Idris and set up a Revolutionary Command Council (RCC).

-- In 1977 he changed the country's name to the Great Socialist Popular Libyan Arab Jamahiriyah (popular republic) when Libyans were given the right to air their views at people's congresses in what Gaddafi continues to describe as grass-roots democracy.

COUNTRY DETAILS:

* POPULATION - 6.4 million

* ETNICITY - Arabs account for 90 percent of the population. There is a Berber minority as well as an immigrant population that includes Egyptian, Greek, Italian and Sudanese communities.

* LANGUAGE - Arabic is the official language. Regional variations of Berber are also spoken, as well as Italian and English.

* RELIGION - The official religion is Islam, and Libyan Muslims are mainly Sunni. There is a small Christian minority.

* GEOGRAPHY - Area is 1,759,540 sq. km and shares its borders to the east with Egypt and Sudan and to the south with Chad and Niger and to the west with Algeria and Tunisia. The Mediterranean is to the north.

Sources: Reuters/UN/CIA factbook/