Kadafi Back in Port After ‘Challenge’ to 6th Fleet

State television Sunday showed Col. Moammar Kadafi returning to this harbor hours after he announced he was sailing to meet the U.S. 6th Fleet aboard a 350-ton patrol boat carrying four missiles.

On Saturday, Kadafi arranged to have a group of foreign reporters flown 125 miles from Tripoli to the Misurata naval base to watch him board the craft. He said he would sail 300 miles to Benghazi at the eastern side of the Gulf of Sidra “to prove to the Americans that we are here.”

The United States and all other Western powers have refused to recognize Kadafi’s claim to the strategic gulf as within Libyan territorial waters beyond the traditional 12-mile limit.

On Friday, the U.S. 6th Fleet announced that it would conduct naval air exercises off Libya, including the Gulf of Sidra.

A Western ambassador in Tripoli, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, said, “Like he often does, Kadafi probably intended his gesture of sailing out to confront the 6th Fleet to be taken symbolically rather than literally.

“To him, the symbol he exhibits to his people is more important than the reality of his action.”

Meanwhile, Kadafi on Sunday urged Mediterranean countries “to remove U.S. military bases from their soil.”

In an interview with the Greek newspaper Ethos, Kadafi referred to President Reagan as “a madman and an idiot” and indicated he believes that Arab nations and the Soviet Union would come to Libya’s assistance if war were to erupt between the United States and Libya.

“All our friends support us,” Kadafi said. “Any attack against Libya is an attack against all peace-loving people, and against the whole Arab world.”

Kadafi praised Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou for having threatened to eventually remove U.S. bases from the Mediterranean country.

“We hold in esteem the Greek people and the stance of their government,” Kadafi was quoted as saying.