Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi warned Chadian legislators Saturday to be wary of U.S. involvement in oil exploration, citing Libyan experience.
"The Americans will never tell you where the oil really is," Gadhafi told the National Assembly. He claimed American exploration companies had misled officials in his country about the true location and extent of petroleum deposits in Libya.A consortium led by Esso Africa, a subsidiary of the U.S. oil company Exxon, has discovered oil in southern Chad and is hoping to begin producing as many as 200,000 barrels a day by 2002.
Gadhafi had been expected to lead a summit Saturday of African leaders whom he had invited the day before to take part in prayers marking the beginning of the Muslim new year. But no summit took place, and there was no immediate explanation why.
During the Friday prayer, Gadhafi criticized Jews and Christians, accusing them of hating Muslims and insulting the Prophet Mohammed.
Gadhafi has been in Chad for a week, on his first trip to Libya's southern neighbor since Libyan troops occupied the country from November 1980 to November 1981.