OTTAWA — Canadian travellers have been told they're not welcome in Libya, in an apparent reprisal for Canada's near tongue-lashing of Moammar Gadhafi.

Gadhafi cancelled a planned stopover in Newfoundland last month after the Harper government made public its intention to scold the Libyan leader over the hero's welcome Libya gave a man convicted in the Lockerbie bombing.

Since then, Gadhafi has made clear to officials within Libya's travel visa offices that no visas are to be granted to Canadians wanting to enter the country.

That has left some Canadians who were part of recent tourist groups travelling in the Middle East and North Africa in the lurch.

Canada's Foreign Affairs department says it is aware of the problems, and that Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon raised the issue when he met with Libyan officials last week in Tripoli.

Gadhafi drew international rebuke in August for throwing a huge welcome-home party for Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who was released from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds.

The national fete for a convicted terrorist outraged many, especially the relatives of the 270 victims killed in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the action "constituted an insult to all the victims who died, including Canadians."