Gaddafi seeks de-recognition of his UN diplomats

Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi has sought de-recognition of his top UN diplomats who have defected and now oppose his regime, a top US official in the world body said.

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has received the request in this regard from Gaddafi, US Ambassador to UN Susan Rice told reporters at the White House.

"We’re dealing now with a request to the Secretary General from Qaddafi to withdraw accreditation for his diplomats in New York who stood up -- his Permanent Representative, his Deputy Permanent Representative -- to the regime, and have been very clear in calling for the kinds of measures that the Security Council took on Saturday," Rice said.

De-recognizing the Gaddafi regime from the United Nations, however, she said is a complicated process and will take some time.

"The question of recognition is a very complicated one. To recognise or seat a changed government requires a vote of a UN credentials committee. And depending on the murkiness of the situation, that can be more or less complicated," Rice said in response to a question.

"It’s too soon to say, in all honesty, how issues of credentials and issues of recognition will be sorted out... It depends on how it evolves. Unless and until there’s an obvious alternative, it’s hard to take from one and give to another because there’s not a clear other to whom recognition can be given," Rice said.