The head of Libya's transitional government tried to reassure Western powers which helped topple Muammar Gaddafi that the country's new leaders were moderate Muslims, after a speech that emphasised the Islamisation of Libya.
Just as in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt, Islamists have emerged from yet another Arab Spring uprising as the most powerful group in the country. How far they will go will be decided at the ballot box - in Tunisia this week, in Egypt in November and in Libya within eight months.
National Transitional Council leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil said on Sunday that Islamic Sharia law would be the main source of legislation, that laws contradicting its tenets would be nullified, and that polygamy would be legalised.
"I would like to assure the international community that we as Libyans are moderate Muslims," said Mr Abdul-Jalil, who added that he was dismayed by the focus abroad on his comments on polygamy.
A US State Department spokeswoman said America was encouraged that he had clarified his earlier statement.
The stir created by Mr Abdul-Jalil's address in Benghazi, the eastern Libyan city where the anti-Gaddafi uprising was born in mid-February, came as international pressure mounted on him to investigate the circumstances of Gaddafi's death.
Abdul-Jalil ordered an inquiry to establish whether the deposed Libyan leader was killed after being captured alive last Thursday by fighters in his home town of Sirte, or whether he died in the crossfire as the government has suggested.
Meanwhile the bodies of Gaddafi, his son Muatassim and his former defence minister Abu Bakr Younis were moved from a commercial freezer in a warehouse area of Misrata in anticipation of burial, a security guard said.
Local military spokesman Ibrahim Beitalmal has said the burial is likely to take place today.
He said the three men would be interred in unmarked graves in a secret location to avoid vandalism. Asked about the removal of the bodies from the freezer, he said he was unaware of the process of burial getting under way.
However, Salem al-Mohandes, a security guard at the warehouse complex, said the bodies were moved from the freezer, where they had been on display for the past four days.
"Our job is finished," said Mr al-Mohandes. "He (Gaddafi) was transferred and the military council of Misrata took him away to an unknown location. I don't know whether they buried him or not."
Mr Abdul-Jalil said earlier that the transitional government has established a committee to determine what to do with Gaddafi's body.
Several videos have emerged showing Gaddafi was alive when he was captured and taunted and beaten by revolutionary fighters in Sirte. The Boston-based international news site GlobalPost posted a video showing Gaddafi's captors ramming a stick into his buttocks through his trousers.
Guma al-Gamaty, a London-based spokesman for the National Transitional Council, said Mr Abdul-Jalil had an obligation at the dawn of a new era to assure Libyans that Islam would be respected.
"This doesn't mean that Libya will become a theocracy. There is no chance of that whatsoever. Libya will be a civic state, a democratic state and, in principle, its laws will not contradict democracy," he said.
French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said: "We have confidence that the Libyan people, who have courageously freed themselves from 42 years of dictatorship, will build a lawful state, in conformity with the principles and universal values shared by the international community."
Libya is a deeply conservative Muslim nation, with most women wearing headscarves or the all-encompassing niqab. Islamists were heavily repressed under Gaddafi and are eager to have their say, raising the prospect of a battle for influence between hardline and moderate Muslims.
Sharia law is enshrined the constitution of a number of Middle Eastern countries with Muslim majorities, but the role it plays in society varies according to interpretations.
Some nations, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, follow a stricter interpretation that mandates cutting off the hands of thieves, the heads of murderers and stoning adulterers to death. Those who drink alcohol are publicly flogged. Others, such as Egypt, state that Sharia is a main source of legislation but have largely secular laws.
"It may not be quite be the country that Nato thought it was fighting for (when Sharia is implemented in Libya)," said David Hartwell, a British-based Libya expert. "But the huge amounts of oil and gas in Libya will make everyone learn how to reconcile themselves with the new Libya."