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TRIPOLI : Libya said on Thursday it will halt fuel supplies to key oil client Switzerland in the latest reprisal for last week's brief detention in Geneva of a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The supplies affected are those transported by ships operated by Libya's General National Maritime Transport Company, a company statement said. Oil transported by commercial vessels will not be affected.
The announcement came as a Swiss delegation held talks with Libyan officials at the foreign ministry in Tripoli in a bid to defuse tensions, diplomatic sources said. No further details were available.
The Swiss foreign ministry has said that the delegation would provide explanations on the arrest of Hannibal Gaddafi, 32, and his wife, on July 15 in a Geneva hotel. The couple was accused of assaulting some of their staff members.
A spokeswoman for the Swiss economy ministry expressed "concern" at the Libyan measures but hoped that the fuel stand-off would be resolved "rapidly."
"Diplomatic exchanges are under way right now," the spokeswoman told AFP in Geneva on Thursday, adding that there were no risks of fuel shortages in Switzerland. "Sources of supply can be widened."
Oil prices rose slightly on Thursday following the statement from Libya - a member of the OPEC cartel which supplies about 40 percent of the world's crude oil - with Brent North Sea crude up 58 cents to 125.87 dollars in early London trading.
A joint statement by the maritime transport company and the port authority threatened further unspecified reprisals, and said Swiss-flagged ships had been banned from Libyan ports.
The statement warned of "new escalatory measures" against Switzerland and demanded that Bern "closes within the next few hours the case it fabricated" against Hannibal Gaddafi.
It also demanded a formal Swiss apology for the arrest of Hannibal who says he was mistreated during his detention.
A few hundred employees from the transport company and port authority demonstrated outside the Swiss embassy in Tripoli before heading to the foreign ministry where officials from Switzerland and Libya were locked in talks.
It was the second protest since Wednesday when dozens of members of revolutionary committees loyal to Gaddafi demonstrated outside the Swiss mission.
Thursday's demonstrators held portraits of the Libyan leader and Hannibal - the official "adviser" to the maritime transport company which owns 10 vessels and handles nearly all oil exports from Libya.
The head of the Swiss Petroleum Association Rolf Hartel told AFP in Geneva that "Libya would be punishing itself" by cutting off supplies to Switzerland, which could easily acquire oil products from other countries within days.
"Economically it would make no sense," Hartel said on Wednesday, adding that Switzerland had more than four months of reserves of petrol, diesel and fuel oil.
He also noted that one of the two Swiss oil refineries, at Collombey, was owned by the Libyan company Tamoil, which also runs 320 filling stations in the country.
On Wednesday the Swiss foreign ministry said that Libya has been retaliating since July 17, when Hannibal was freed on bail.
Libya's envoy in Switzerland has been recalled and Libya has suspended issuing visas to Swiss citizens, the ministry said.
Air links between Switzerland and Libya have been reduced and Swiss businesses in Libya have received closure orders, it added.
Libya has also shut the local offices of Swiss food group Nestle and engineering firm ABB and detained officials of both.
Nestle said its representative, an Egyptian, was held for several hours before being released, while ABB said that one of its Swiss employees was still being held.
Libyan officials have said Tripoli was also considering withdrawing Libyan assets from Swiss banks, a cut in diplomatic relations and expelling Swiss companies from the North African nation.
Switzerland has advised its citizens against travelling to Libya and urged those already there to register with the embassy.
Gaddafi's son has had previous run-ins with the police in Europe.
In 2005 he was investigated after incidents in two Paris hotels and was once stopped by French police for driving down the Champs Elysees at 140 kilometres per hour. - AFP/de
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