Kampala - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is suing a Kampala tabloid after it alleged he is having an affair with a Queen Mother of a Ugandan kingdom, the newspaper's editor said Saturday.

Gaddafi's lawyers have filed a suit totalling 1 billion dollars againts the editors of The Red Pepper over the paper's reports that he is in love with Tooro Kingdom's Queen Mother Best Kemigisha, editor Ben Byaraba told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"Gaddafi has sued us for one billion dollars," Byaraba said by telephone. "We stand by the story and we are waiting for Gaddafi to stand in court to accuse us of writing that he is engaged in the sex scandal."

Tooro, in the west of the country, is one of numerous Ugandan kingdoms revived by President Yoweri Museveni over 15 years ago after their abolition in the 1960s.

A widow in her early 40s, Kemigisha is the mother of the world's youngest monarch, the 16-year old king Oyo Nyimba Iguru.

Gaddafi's lawyers said that articles "cumulatively construed in their ordinary meaning and context" that Gaddafi was having an adulterous relationship with Kemigisha.

The Libyan leader, who was recently appointed chairman of the African Union, has frequently been seen with Kemigisha, visiting the Tooro royal family whenever he comes to Uganda. (dpa)