Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan has been seized by armed men from a hotel in the capital, Tripoli.
Mr Zeidan was taken at dawn "by gunmen to an unknown place
for unknown reasons", said a statement on the government's website said.
The details of the incident are unclear - sources say Mr
Zeidan was arrested by an anti-crime department militia, but others that
he had been kidnapped.
On Tuesday he called on the West to help stop militancy in Libya.
In an interview with the BBC on Monday, Mr Zeidan had said
Libya was being used as a base to export weapons throughout the region.
He called on the West to help stop militancy in Libya.
Cabinet summoned
The BBC's Rana Jawad, in Tripoli, says the details remain
unclear, but that Mr Zeidan was taken by armed men from a hotel in the
city in the early hours of the morning.
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".
It said the cabinet had had been summoned for an immediate meeting under the leadership of the deputy minister.
Two years after the revolt which overthrew Muammar Gaddafi,
Libya's government has been struggling to contain rival tribal militias
and Islamist militants who control parts of the country.
On Monday, Libya demanded an explanation from the US
ambassador over the capture of suspected al-Qaeda leader Anas al-Liby in
Tripoli.
Mr Liby was wanted over the 1998 bombings of US embassies in
Kenya and Tanzania. He was seized by US commandos in an early morning
raid on Saturday.
Our correspondent says that it is too soon to link Mr Zeidan's seizure with the capture of Mr Liby.
Last month Mr Zeidan visited the UK and appealed for British
help to remove weapons from the country amid fears of increased arms
smuggling to Syria.
In April he urged Libyans to back their government in the face of "people who want to destabilise the country".
He also complained at that time of other attacks and "acts of
sabotage" carried out by separate groups, against the interior ministry
and national TV headquarters.
SOURCE: BBC
