Qathafi boycotts Jakarta summit over being banned to deliver Friday's sermon

The Libyan leader Muammar al-Qathafi canceled his plans to take part in the Afro-Asian summit in Jakarta after Indonesia being refrained from delivering Friday's sermon in one of its mosques.

The Indonesian news agency quoted the Indonesian official Mohey Eddin Jonedy as saying "we regret that the Libyan President can not attend, his basic claim is that the government did not give him the license to deliver Friday's sermon al al-Istiqlal ( Independence) mosque." Jonedy added that the Indonesian President had agreed al-Qathafi to deliver Friday's sermon in one of the largest mosques in southern east Asia. But he changed his mind when the minister of religious affairs Maftouh Basyouni rejected this step.

Officials of the Libyan embassy in Jakarta said that Qathafi will not attend the summit but refused to explain the reasons.