Updated

Cairo, Oct 10 (IANS/ITAR -TASS): Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan was detained Thursday by interior ministry personnel, an official at the ministry's anti-crime directorate announced.

"No one kidnapped him," the LANA news agency quoted the official as saying.

Information came in earlier that unidentified armed men forced their way into Tripoli's Corinthia Hotel which houses the residence of the Head of Cabinet and, threatening him with weapons, took him away to an unknown destination.

According to the Al-Jazeera television channel, the premier was arrested during a joint operation of the interior ministry and the so-called operations headquarters of some former rebels on instructions of the attorney general.

Charges of corruption and of implication in the arrest of Abu Anas al-Libi, an alleged Al Qaida leader by US special forces in Tripoli Saturday were ostensibly brought against Zeidan, the Sky News-Arabia TV channel reported.

However, the Al-Arabia channel quoted the country's attorney general as saying that he personally "did not issue a warrant" for the arrest of Zeidan.

Cabinet sources officially stated that the premier was kidnapped by "unidentified armed people".

"Zeidan was kidnapped by unidentified armed persons who took him away to an unknown destination," the prime minister's spokesman Mohamed Kaabr said.

In particular, government sources laid the blame for the kidnapping on the rebels of the city of Az Zawiah which is situated on the Mediterranean coast, 50 km from the capital.

Justice Minister Salah Bashir Margani also told Al-Arabia that Zeidan had been kidnapped by armed militants

The Libyan government is holding an urgent meeting following these developments.

Earlier Report

Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan kidnapped: government

Tripoli, Oct 10 (AFP): Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan addresses the 22nd session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, in this file picture taken February 25, 2013. Armed men have kidnapped Zeidan from a hotel in Tripoli, two Arab television channels reported on October 10, 2013.

Abu Dhabi-based Sky News Arabia quoted Libyan security sources as saying that Zeidan was seized from a hotel where he was staying in the Libyan capital and taken to an unknown destination. Dubai-based al-Arabiya carried a similar report.

Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan was kidnapped from his Tripoli hotel at dawn today by an armed group and taken to an unknown location, the government and sources said.

"The head of the transitional government, Ali Zeidan, was taken to an unknown destination for unknown reasons by a group" of men believed to be former rebels, the government said in a brief statement on its website.

A source in the prime minister's office said Zeidan had been kidnapped from Tripoli's Corinthia hotel, where he resides.

The abduction comes five days after US commandos seized senior Al-Qaeda figure Abu Anas al-Libi -- indicted for the twin 1998 bombings of US embassies in east Africa -- off the streets of Tripoli and whisked him away to a warship.

The government said it suspected two groups of ex-rebels, the chamber of revolutionaries and the brigade for the fight against crime, which in principle fall under the defence and interior ministries, of being behind the kidnapping.

The cabinet and the General National Congress, Libya's top political authority, were dealing with the situation the statement said, while calling on citizens to remain calm.

Saturday's raid by US commandos in Tripoli has embarrassed and put the Libyan government under pressure from its critics -- in particular some former rebel groups in the 2011 revolt that ousted and killed dictator Muammar Gaddafi.