Obama shouldn't 'relish' Gaddafi death footage

LOS ANGELES: U.S. President Barack Obama took issue on Tuesday with the broadcasting of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's bloody demise, saying even those who had done "terrible things" deserved decorum in death.

Gaddafi was buried in a secret desert location on Tuesday, five days after he was captured, killed and put on grisly public display. The former leader was seen on video being mocked, beaten and abused before he died.

"That's not something that I think we should relish," Obama told Jay Leno on NBC's "Tonight Show," when asked his feelings about the footage being televised. "I think that there's a certain decorum with which you treat the dead even if it's somebody who has done terrible things."

Obama noted that his administration had not released a photograph of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's body after U.S. commandos killed him in Pakistan earlier this year.

The president said Gaddafi had missed a chance to bring democracy to his country.

Obama was in the middle of a western state tour with stops in Nevada, California and Colorado, mixing White House business with events for his 2012 re-election campaign.