Libya denies banning foreign travel for women

TRIPOLI, Mar 12 (Reuters) Libya's government, responding to rare domestic criticism that it violates women's rights, denied on Sunday it barred Libyan women from going abroad alone.

A statement from the General People's Committee or cabinet said it had taken temporary steps at border posts to protect women from ''some negative matters that accompanied the travel abroad by Libyan women''.

''Those measures never aimed to deprive Libyan women of foreign travel,'' it said, adding the measures were no longer in effect. The measures had not been understood correctly and had needed more explanation, it said without elaborating.

On Tuesday, in a rare attack on the authorities, Libyan state newspaper al Jamahiriya denounced what it said was a bar on Libyan women travelling abroad alone. It urged citizens affected by the measure to sue the government.

Some conservative Islamic scholars in Libya argue that Muslim women must be accompanied by a male relative when travelling.

But the newspaper, which like all other news media in Libya is state-controlled, said the practice was against government-endorsed human rights rules known officially as the Great Green Declaration of Human Rights.

Reuters DKS VP0430