TORONTO — Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has canceled a planned visit to Canada this week.
A Canadian government official said Saturday that Gadhafi won't be landing in Newfoundland early this week to refuel his plane and stay for a night. The official said hotel reservations have been canceled and Libya's advance team has left.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid speaking for another country's head of state.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper had planned on sending Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon to meet with Gadhafi to express Canada's displeasure over the hero's welcome Libya gave to the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing. All 259 people aboard Pan Am Flight 103 and 11 people on the ground died when a bomb blew up the plane over Scotland in 1988.
Gadhafi arranged a welcome for the cancer-stricken Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who was released from a Scottish prison last month on compassionate grounds.
Harper's office said the welcoming constituted an insult to all the victims who died - including Canadians.
Gadhafi is attending a weekend Africa-South America summit in Venezuela. He was scheduled to stop in St. John's, Newfoundland, after that meeting. It was not an official visit to Canada.
Front Section, Pages 12 on 09/27/2009