Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi has intervened in the case of the request by the American balloonist Steve Fossett to fly through Libyan airspace.

"Proceeding from the brother leader of the revolution's interest in scientific research and support for human efforts to defy nature for the good of the human race, he intervened with the competent Libyan civil aviation authorities as soon as he heard the request," the Libyan news agency Jana reported on Sunday.

The agency added that in accordance with current embargo preventing Libyan aircraft from flying outside Libyan airspace and the fact that the balloon was American, the Libyan civil aviation authorities had originally refused overflight permission to the balloonist.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.
 

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