Algeria doesn't permit Gaddafi regime officials to enter

Twelve vehicles carrying about 30 former Libyan officers and four carrying armed men stopped some 200 km south of Algeria's southeastern Debdeb frontier port last week.

Three vehicles came to the borderline and gave the Algerian authorities a list of names of officers and civilians seeking to get shelter in Algeria, Xinhua reported citing Arabic-language daily El Khabar.

The Algerian authorities rejected their request because the majority of the passengers in the vehicles were former officers in the Libyan army and intelligence services, and employees in the Gaddafi government, a source told the daily.

Receiving those military officers would mean that Algeria was "supporting one disputing party in Libya's domestic conflict", the source said.

The convoy then headed to the south of Libya, near the border with Niger, the source added.

Algeria closed its southern border with Libya after some Gaddafi family members crossed into the coutry early last week.