The minaret at a mosque in Cyprus which was built with funding from the Libyan government of Muammar Gaddafi will not be demolished, the north’s religious affairs directorate said on Wednesday, after demolition work began at the mosque on Tuesday.

“The existing minaret will be preserved, the administrative building constructed with Libyan support will be maintained, and only the prayer area will be expanded as needed,” it said.

It added that “all work will be carried out within the framework of the current town planning, cultural heritage, and foundations administration [Evkaf] regulations, with the approval and supervision of the relevant institutions and under the support of philanthropists”.

The mosque is located in the suburb of Mandres, next to the motorway which connects Nicosia and Famagusta, and is adjacent to the religious affairs directorate’s headquarters.

It was constructed in 1979, with an inscription on its outer wall reading that it was constructed “with the support of the brotherly Libyan Socialist Arab Jamahiriya” and that the project was “under the patronage of the leader of the Cyprus Turkish federated state Rauf Denktash”.

The inscription also makes reference to “contributions” made by Libyan ambassadors in Nicosia, named as A Zintani and Y Azzabi. Additionally, it states that the land on which the mosque was built was donated by Ali Buba, who was a member of the Buba family, which is well known in Mandres.

News website Haber Kibris had reported that the mosque was to be replaced by a new, larger mosque, which will “incorporate Cypriot architectural motifs” and “emphasis Cypriot identity”.

Gaddafi ruled over Libya between 1969 and 2011, having deposed the western-backed Senussi monarchy in a coup d’état.

He was known as one of the world’s more eccentric leaders, being accompanied on his travels by an all-female Amazonian guard and wearing distinctive clothing and sunglasses.

One of his more notable moments was when he urged the United Nations general assembly to abolish Switzerland in 2009, before the following year calling for jihad against the Alpine state.

“Any Muslim in any part of the world who works with Switzerland is an apostate – is against Muhammad, God and the Qur’an,” he said in 2010.

He was overthrown in 2011 during the Arab Spring, with anti-Gaddafi forces backed by Nato, before being shot dead after taking refuge in a drainage pipe in the coastal city of Sirte shortly afterwards.