He came as the self-styled "emancipator of women", the world's longest-serving leader who makes much of his all-female bodyguard squad and favourable views towards the opposite sex.

But to hundreds of baffled Italian women gathered for a rare audience with Muammar Gaddafi, if this was the king of women's rights then the movement still has a long way to go.

Gaddafi's request to meet 1,000 prominent Italian women on his landmark trip to Italy this week has generated scepticism and amusement in equal measure. In Berlusconi's Italy, an all-female guest list has taken on a certain connotation.

But this wasn't a crowd from a party villa. An exotic assemblage filed in. There were leading figures from politics, culture and industry, ministers posed for cameras, lawyers talked earnestly in their seats and Reality TV personalities blew kisses across the aisles.

Arriving on stage in flowing robes, Gaddafi assumed his seat and placed copies of his little green book in front of him. Mara Cafagna, a former topless model turned minister of equal opportunities kicked things off by describing the event as an "important day for relations between Italy and Libya". Cafagna, who once described her experiences as Miss Italy as "a competition that makes you as a woman", admirably espoused her new role as a figurehead of women's rights, addressing female mutilation and domestic violence and saying how much she hoped Gaddafi's presence would present "a strong clear message against the abuse of women".

Gaddafi drummed his figures on the table, lounged back in his large leather chair and perused his little green book, occasionally beckoning one of his female bodyguards, who shuffled back and forth with drinks and boxes of tissues. "I am curious to see, to understand his point of view," said Maria Gabriella, from Rome, "but with all these women working for him as semi slaves it seems a bit of a contradiction to call himself a liberator of women."

On stage, Luisa Todini, an entrepreneur, said: "It might be easy to ask wonder why you have made this exclusive request to meet hundreds of Italian women." With gravelly tones, Gaddafi responded by describing the various philosophical positions that have historically elevated men as superior.

"Not my philosophy," he was quick to add.

But the colonel's philosophy was about as elusive as an oasis in a Libyan desert. "There is no difference between men and women on a human level," he exclaimed. "God made men and women, we must respect the differences between the sexes."

Then it all went a bit wrong.Using a peculiar example of a steam train driver, Gaddafi called for "two systems" in the professional forum; "one suitable for men, the other for women". Even the interpreter seemed a little bemused. He could be seen suppressing a few smiles and at one point made a gesture by tapping the side of his head.

With growing murmurs in the auditorium and a few noisy exits, Gaddafi tried to regain some credibility by denouncing the treatment of women in Arabic and Islamic societies.

"Why should these women have to apply to the head of state for the right to drive a car?" he asked. The audience applauded politely, but swiftly laughed incredulously as he went on to add that this was a matter for "their husbands or brothers should d ecide". Boos and hisses filled the auditorium; there were whispers in ears and Gaddafi wrapped up quickly, welcoming all the foregathered to Libya "whenever we wished".

Exeunt, in confusion. "I'm not sure I'll take anything away from today," said Vera, 23, from Rome. "It was out of this world," said Luisa, who did not give her last name. "He really is on a different planet."