Saudi Arabia has asked Libya's ambassador to the kingdom to leave in the latest escalation of a diplomatic row over an alleged assassination plot.
"Saudi Arabia asked yesterday the Libyan ambassador to Riyadh to leave. Since Saudi Arabia is the host state, the Libyan ambassador will return to Libya," a Libyan Foreign Ministry source said.
Saudi authorities refused to comment.
Diplomatic tensions have risen between the two oil-rich countries since Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador from Tripoli in December over what it called an "atrocious" plot to kill Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Abdullah.
Libya denied the accusation and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi blamed any tensions between the two countries on what he said were baseless US press reports.
The US investigation into the plot began as Washington and London were welcoming Gaddafi back into the international community after he decided to dismantle his weapons of mass destruction programs.
In October, a US court sentenced prominent US Muslim activist Abdurahman al-Amoudi to 23 years in jail for illegal financial dealings with Libya and for his role in the alleged assassination plot.
Amoudi said in court documents that he had contacted Saudi dissidents in London on behalf of some Libyan officials to kill the crown prince. Washington and Britain have frozen the assets of one of these dissidents, Saudi Islamist Saad al-Fagih.
In early 2003, Prince Abdullah and Gaddafi clashed at an Arab summit when the Libyan leader criticized the kingdom for hosting U.S. forces before the Iraq war. The prince walked out after angrily pointing at Gaddafi and questioning how he had come to power.
The United States said Tripoli had yet to resolve US concerns about the alleged plot, which Washington said was an obstacle to dropping Libya from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism and ending related sanctions.