Egypt denies Libyan trip by President Mubarak was not authorized

Egypt denied that the trip by President Mubarak was not authorized by the UN saying permission was obtained from the UN sanctions committee at the United Nations on Wednesday.

President Hosni Mubarak on Thursday flew to Libya to visit Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gaddafi who has undergone a surgery in his hip Last Tuesday.

The first secretary of the Egyptian foreign ministry and director of President Mubarak's bureau for political affairs Osama el-Baz who accompanied the Egyptian President in his trip said "the Egyptian President has been granted permission by the UN to head on the plane to Libya."

Recently, several African leaders had visited Libya by planes and thereby violating the air embargo imposed on the country since 1993. These include Chad's President Idris Debi and the President of Niger who together with Gaddafi observed prayers of Prophet Muhammad's Birthday anniversary.

The Organization of African Unity "OAU", of which Egypt is a member-state, had decided last June in its latest summit in Burkina Faso to partially lift the UN embargo. The pan-African body warned that it will unilaterally lift the sanctions the September, after the International Court of Justice ruled in February that it is competent to look into the case of two Libyan nationals accused of masterminding the explosion of a Pan-Am airliner in 1988 over the Scottish village of Lockerbie.

UN officials told ArabicNews.com that the request came from Egypt through its UN mission to the 15 member Libyan Sanctions Committee (748 committee) headed by Slovenia, and the committee gave permission the very same day.

Previously South African president Mandela on his visit to see the Libyan leader drove into Libya by car in order to avoid breaking the sanctions.