A spokesman says former U.S. Congressman Curt Weldon is in the Libyan capital for talks with Moammar Khaddafy on efforts to end the country's crisis.
"Our purpose is to meet with Colonel Qaddafi today and persuade him to step aside," Weldon said in a New York Times Op-Ed.
Weldon arrived in Tripoli on Wednesday after Khaddafy invited him, the spokesman said.. Weldon would be one of the few high-profile Westerners to meet with Khaddafy since the rebellion against his four-decade rule began in February.
Weldon is a Republican from Pennsylvania who served in Congress for two decades before losing his seat in 2006. It was not immediately clear why Khaddafy sought to meet with him, though Weldon was part of a bipartisan delegation that visited Libya in 2004.
"Neither the White House nor I wanted to lend support to Colonel Qaddafi himself; our goal was to open a new era of engagement between the United States government and American business with the Libyan people themselves," Weldon said about the 2004 trip.
Weldon said he traveled to Libya "at the invitation of Colonel Qaddafi‘s chief of staff and with the knowledge of the Obama administration and members of Congress from both parties."
"Our purpose is to meet with Colonel Qaddafi today and persuade him to step aside," said Weldon.
