Mr Zeidan was taken from his hotel before dawn "by gunmen to an unknown place for unknown reasons", said a government statement. 

 

A former rebel group loosely allied¹ to the government said it had arrested him following a prosecutor²'s warrant. The government has denied this.

 

The government has been under pressure after US commandos（突击队） seized senior al-Qaeda suspect Anas al-Liby in Libya.

 

Mr Liby was snatched on Saturday in Tripoli. He is wanted in the US over the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

 

On Monday, Libya demanded an explanation from the US ambassador over the incident.

 

The government is also struggling to contain rival tribal³ militias⁵ and Islamist militants⁶ who control parts of the country, two years after the revolt which overthrew⁷ Muammar Gaddafi.

 

The BBC's Rana Jawad, in Tripoli, says the details of Mr Zeidan's capture remain unclear, but that he was taken by armed men from a hotel he resides in in the early hours of the morning.

 

Al-Arabiya TV station broadcast images which showed Mr Zeidan looking dishevelled and being escorted by what the station said were armed men.

 

The government website said he had been taken "to an unknown place for unknown reasons by a group thought to be from the Tripoli Revolutionaries Control Room and the Committee for Fighting Crime". 

 

The government statement did not name the hotel, but a woman at the Corinthia Hotel - where the prime minister lives - confirmed the incident happened there when armed men entered the building. 

 

She said no-one had been killed.

 

Our correspondent says there are a number of militia⁴ groups operating in Libya which are nominally⁸ attached to government ministries⁹ but often act independently.

 

One of them - the Operations Cell of Revolutionaries - said it was acting¹⁰ on the orders of the prosecutor general in accordance with Libya's penal¹¹ code.

 

However, state-run National Libyan TV quoted Justice Minister Salah al-Marghani as saying that the prosecutor general had issued no such order.

 

Libya's cabinet has been summoned for an immediate¹² meeting under the leadership of the deputy prime minister.

 

UK Foreign Secretary, William Hague condemned¹³ the capture and called for Mr Zeidan's immediate release.

 

"It is vital that the process of political transition in Libya is maintained. The government and people of Libya have our full support at this concerning time," he said.

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