List of 10 most decadent dictators revealed

London, Sept.9 : Following is the list of the world's ten most decadent dictators, according to The Times.

1. Kim Jong-il of North Korea: Has super-expensive tastes, with 17 palaces, and collections of hundreds of cars and about 20,000 videotapes. Loves to eat live lobsters and drinks 650,000 dollars worth of Hennessy VSOP cognac a year, besides having an entourage of young lovelies known as the "Pleasure Brigade"

2.Ferdinand Marcos, Philippines President from 1965 to 1986:Secreted billions of dollars in overseas accounts.

3.Nicolae Ceausescu, President of Romania, 1967 - 1989: Despite an official salary of just 3,000 dollars, he found the cash for 15 palaces, a superb car collection, yachts, fine art and bespoke suits. Tens of thousands of homes were demolished to make space for his 1,100-room, 480-chandelier Palace of the Parliament in the capital, Bucharest

4.Saparmurat Niyazov, President of Turkmenistan, 1990-2006: Was at the center of an awesome cult of personality. Vanity projects included a six million pound revolving gold-plated statue of himself in the country's capital, Ashgabat. He shifted around three billion pounds to overseas accounts, renamed the month of January (after himself), banned beards and ordered that his musings be displayed alongside the Koran in mosques

5.Idi Amin, President of Uganda, 1971 - 1979. The self-styled "Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea", "Emperor of Uganda" and "King of Scotland" awarded himself the VC, or Victorious Cross, and CBE, or Conqueror of the British Empire. He also spent millions on a super-lavish lifestyle - maintaining a reported 30 mistresses as well as five wives and fathering at least 43 children. A typically mad-capped project was the creation of a personal bodyguard of bagpipe-playing 6ft 4in Scotsmen

6.Joseph Stalin, Leader of the Soviet Union, 1922 - 1953: Was celebrated in his lifetime by thousands of stylised statues and monuments erected across the Soviet Union. He also had a taste for palaces, booze and cigars and preferred to travel by armour-plated private train with a Tsarist court-style entourage

7.Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Persia, 1941 - 1979: Spent a reported 100 million dollars on celebrations for the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian monarchy in 1971, serving breast of peacock on Limoges china to dignitaries in a 160-acre tent city at Persepolis - close to poor villages. His superb collection of sports cars can be seen at the National Car Museum of Iran, alongside custom models by Mercedes-Benz and Porsche for his son, the Crown Prince

8.Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq, 1979 - 2003. The Baathist leader with a fondness for gold-plated bathroom fittings, and Kalashnikovs, rebuilt Babylon on kitsch rather than authentic lines, stamping each brick of the "reconstruction" with his own name in the manner of Nubachadnezzar, the ancient Babylonian king and conqueror of Jerusalem. His playboy eldest son Uday, meanwhile, kept a private zoo with lions and cheetahs at his Baghdad residence and owned a collection of 1,200 luxury cars

9.Mobutu Sese Soku, President of Zaire, 1965 - 1997. Siphoning his country's wealth into Swiss bank accounts, had an estimated personal fortune of five billion dollars in 1984. His extravagances included palaces and pink champagne, yachts and shopping trips to Paris by chartered Concorde.

10.Suharto, President of Indonesia, 1967 - 1998: The former bank clerk embezzled more money than any other leader in history, according to Transparency International. In 1999, Time Asia put his family's wealth at 15 billion dollars.

ANI