Washington at loss over Gaddafi tent for UN

American officials were stuck in a bind Tuesday over calls to prevent Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi from pitching a tent near angry relatives of Lockerbie bombing victims on his upcoming trip to New York.

The Libyan leader, saying he wants to stay true to his Bedouin roots, camps in a tent when he travels, setting up his sleeping quarters everywhere from Rome's main park to a garden across from the Elysee Palace in Paris.

Gaddafi is set to come to New York next month for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, where Libya is presiding. U.N. officials said it would be his first trip to the world body in his 40 years in power.

The visit comes amid U.S. anger at Libya's warm reception of the Lockerbie bomber, whom Scotland freed last week on compassionate grounds.

Pitching the tent

Senator Frank Lautenberg called on the State Department to restrict Gaddafi to the immediate U.N. area and block him from planting his tent on the grounds of a Libyan diplomat in the nearby suburb of Englewood, New Jersey.

Lautenberg, who represents New Jersey, said the town is painfully close to the homes of many families of the 1988 Pan Am plane bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland that killed 270 people.

"Given recent events, I believe the State Department should ensure that Colonel Gaddafi's entry into the U.S. is for official U.N. business only and does not allow him to travel freely," Lautenberg said Monday.

Michael Wildes, the mayor of Englewood, New Jersey, is not rolling out the welcome mat. "I don't want him to sleep here," Wildes told AFP.

"Here, 38 families have lost parents, a friend of mine lost his father, Lockerbie has had an impact on my life," said Wildes, 44. "My citizens are furious, I am furious," he said.

The mayor said he would take part in a demonstration to be held Sunday in front of Libyan diplomatic property, which officials have been sprucing up in advance of the Gaddafi's visit.

"I am the grandson of a Holocaust survivor. If he comes we will protect him, but that doesn't mean we're happy. My job is to respect the law but to express my opinion. I don't want him to sleep here," said Wildes.

"The man is a financier of terrorism before bin Laden," he said.

Here, 38 families have lost parents, a friend of mine lost his father, Lockerbie has had an impact on my life... I don't want him to sleep here

Michael Wildes Mayor of Englewood, New Jersy

Families of the victims

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly noted Tuesday that the United States had an agreement with the United Nations to let in foreign leaders and said it was unclear how to restrict him within the New York area.

"Of course our priority has been and will remain the families of the victims of this tragedy," Kelly said.

"We're also talking to the Libyans to highlight the concerns that we have and the very raw sensitivities of the families who live in that area," he said.

But he added: "As far as the legal levers that we would have, I'm not sure."

"We are generally obligated to facilitate travel to foreign nationals to and from U.N. headquarters in New York," he said.

The United States warned Libya it had set back improving relations with the West by giving a "hero's welcome" to convicted bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, whom Scotland freed over U.S. objections due to his cancer.

But the United States said it is too early to talk of punishing Libya and has not ruled out a chance encounter at the United Nations between Gaddafi and President Barack Obama.

We're also talking to the Libyans to highlight the concerns that we have and the very raw sensitivities of the families who live in that area

Ian Kelly, U.S. State Department