27 Aug 2009
US authorities have called for the disbarment of the Libyan leader, Moammar Gadhafi, from a UN visit over his decision to pitch a Bedouin tent in New Jersey.

US Congressmen from the State of New Jersey joined voices with Governor Jon Corzine on Wednesday in order to express dismay at Gadhafi's aspiration to install his Bedouin-style camp on a Libyan diplomatic residence in New Jersey during his first US visit in which he is to address the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in September.

Senator Robert Menendez and Congressman John Adler objected to Gadhafi's scheduled stay, calling for the withdrawal of his plan to erect a stylized pavilion.

"I want him barred from New Jersey," said Adler, adding elsewhere, "Let him land at the UN by helicopter, do his business and get out of the country."

The US officials have been angered by the latest 'backward' episode in which Colonel Gadhafi warmly received the Libyan convict for the Lockerbie bombing, Abdul Baset Al Megrahi, renewing controversies between the West and the Muslim nation.

270 people, mostly Americans, lost their lives after a planted bomb onboard a Pan Am Boeing 747 was blown up over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988.

Meanwhile, the US Department of State has stepped up diplomatic efforts meant to deflate the situation.

State Department spokesperson Ian Kelly said on Wednesday that the US government seeks out a compromise from the Libyan delegation to relinquish its bid for the Bedouin tent.

"The most important thing here is that we respect the feelings of the many families who live in the New York area who lost family members in that horrific bombing," Kelly said, referring to the family of the victims aboard the downed Pan Am Flight 103.

"We're hoping that -- and we are expecting -- we will be able to come to some sort of agreement where all these sensitivities are respected. ... Some kind of understanding regarding where Mr. Gadhafi will stay that is respectful of the sensitivities of residents," CNN quoted him as saying.

Relations between the two countries became strained after the release of the terminally-ill Megrahi drew criticism from Washington, which had warned against a 'heroic' homecoming of the Libyan citizen.

presstv