(AFP) – 15 hours ago

OTTAWA — Libya's embassy on Tuesday denied reports that it has stopped issuing visas to Canadians following a diplomat spat over the repatriation of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi.

The embassy in Ottawa said in a statement it "asserts that there are no obstacles or restrictions on the issuance of visas for Canadian citizens to enter Libya."

"All types of visas are issued for Canadian applicants in accordance with the procedure applicable to citizens of all countries," it said.

"Many holders of Canadian nationality live in Libya, and they exit and return to it with ease and in an ordinary manner."

CBC television and the online journal Cyberpresse had reported Sunday that Libya had stopped issuing visas to Canadians following the cancellation by Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi in late September of a stopover in Canada.

Kadhafi was supposed to spend a short layover in Canada while heading back to Libya from summits in the United States and Venezuela.

But Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper instructed Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon to meet with the controversial leader to express Canada's displeasure over the celebrations that welcomed home Abdel Baset al-Megrahi.

Megrahi was released in August from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds because he has terminal cancer, but the joyful celebrations that welcomed him home were sharply criticized by countries who lost citizens in the 1988 attack.

Cannon was to tell Kadhafi that the welcome was "an insult to all the victims, including Canadians."