Libya has reacted angrily after the United States expressed concern about the possibility that the country might chair next year's session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

Comments by the US State Department questioning whether Libya was fit to take up such a post because of its own human rights record emanated "from a position of enmity", an official statement in Tripoli said.

US State Department deputy spokesman Phil Reeker said on Tuesday that should Libya be picked to chair the Commission "that's of concern to us because of our concerns about Libya's record on human rights".

(Reeker's comments) aim to distract attention from the United States' poor human rights record

Libyan statement

The State Department's latest report on Libya describes the government of Colonel Gaddafi as a dictatorship, and accuses it of numerous serious abuses as well as a poor human rights record.

The UN commission is chaired on a rotational basis, with Africa next in turn.

Libya was nominated to take up the role at the inaugural African Union summit in July, although no formal appointment is made until the Commission meets.

Last May, the US lost its seat on the Human Rights Commission which it had held for more than half a century.

Need for qualifications

The US statement "was a hostile declaration aimed at preventing the African Union from becoming a reality and distracting attention from the United States' poor human rights record", Libyan Government spokesperson Hassuna Al-Shaush was quoted as saying by the French news agency AFP.

Mr Reeker said on Tuesday the US believed "that substantive qualifications for participation in the UN Commission on Human Rights, rather than some rotational scheme or vote-trading, should determine nominations and elections".

The United States is now expected to work behind the scenes at the UN to try to prevent Libya taking up the chair of the commission, according to some reports.

Apart from US concern, the US-based Human Rights Watch pressure group and the British opposition Conservative Party have expressed opposition to Libya chairing the commission.

Human Rights Watch said Libya has a poor human rights record and its nomination by the African Union "undercuts their new commitment to promote human rights and good governance".

The group has written to a number of African leaders to try to get Libya's nomination withdrawn.