Italy urges Swiss to drop travel ban against Libyans

(ROME) - Italy on Wednesday asked Switzerland to scrap its travel ban against 186 Libyans -- including the country's leader Moamer Kadhafi -- while urging Tripoli to free two Swiss nationals in its custody.

"We ask Switzerland to pursue negotiations (with Libya) to reach an accord allowing the elimination of this list and at the same time the release of the two Swiss," Franco Frattini told journalists after meeting with his Libyan and Maltese counterparts Mousa Kousa and Tonio Borg.

Libya has been embroiled in a diplomatic row with Switzerland since July 2008 after the brief arrest in Geneva of Kadhafi's son Hannibal when two hotel workers complained he had mistreated them.

The row escalated when Libya swiftly detained two Swiss businessmen.

Switzerland hit back banning 186 Libyans, including Kadhafi and the foreign minister, from entering Swiss territory, and Libya soon retaliated by denying entry visas to citizens of Europe's 25-state Schengen free-travel zone.

Frattini said he understood how Libyans could have been "deeply hurt" by their leader's inclusion on the Swiss blacklist, set up to "prevent the entrance of terrorists and criminals in the Schengen zone."

Malta and Italy ask "once more of Switzerland to accelerate negotiations with Libya" and to eliminate the blacklist, they said in a joint statement.

Frattini also urged Libya to adopt "pragmatic flexibility" and not to make members of the Schengen zone "pay the price over a bilateral dispute" between Switzerland and Libya.

The row will be discussed on Monday during a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, which Frattini said was the "appropriate political setting."

Italy has longstanding links with Libya, its former North African colony.