www.middle-east-online.com Libya has cancelled flights to Tripoli by the airline Swiss for "technical reasons," a company spokesman said  amid tensions between the two countries.

"We received a letter at the beginning of last week from the Libyan civil aviation authority," Jean-Claude Donzel told Swiss radio.

This said that "for technical reasons related to a project at Tripoli airport" Switzerland's national airline could no longer carry out its weekly flight to the Libyan capital.

"To our knowledge, we are the only company affected," said Donzel.

Relations between Switzerland and Libya have been strained for several months since one of the sons of Libyan leader Moamer Gathafi, Hannibal Gathafi, was arrested in Geneva following a complaint by one of his domestic staff.

Hannibal Gathafi was eventually released and the complaint was dropped.

But Libya has taken reprisals against the Swiss government, cancelling deliveries of oil in October, withdrawing an estimated seven billion dollars from Swiss banks, and stopping all areas of cooperation between the two countries.

The Swiss foreign ministry declined to comment on the cancelling of Swiss airline flights to Libya but confirmed press reports that it was in discussions with Tripoli.

"The discussions with Libya are difficult but they are proceeding," said ministry spokesman Lars Knuchel.