NY town orders stop to Gaddafi tent on Trump land

Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi arrives to attend an event marking the 10th anniversary of the Sirte declaration, in which African countries decided to establish the African Union, in Tripoli September 9, 2009.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was having a tent pitched on property owned by Donald Trump in suburban New York on Tuesday until local officials stopped the work because it violated regulations, a town attorney said.

Workers were erecting a tent and satellites on property in Bedford, New York, that belongs to the famed real estate developer Trump, said Bedford town attorney Joel Sachs.

A famously eccentric figure, Gaddafi is known for pitching a large Bedouin tent on his trips abroad. He was scheduled to attend the U.N. General Assembly this week.

Gaddafi last month had plans to erect a tent in suburban New Jersey, where the Libyan embassy owns property, but the U.S. government said he could not use the land for that purpose. A request to set up his tent in New York's Central Park also was turned down.

A building inspector for Bedford tried to deliver a "stop work" order to workers at the scene but they did not speak English, so he gave the order to a property caretaker, Sachs said. It was unclear whether the work had stopped, Sachs said.

The roof of a tent and ropes were visible from behind a stone wall in a photograph published on Tuesday by the website of the local newspaper Journal News.

A green and yellow fabric lined the walls in a pattern dotted with images of small brown camels. Two men in the picture identified themselves to the Journal News as Libyan security guards.

Bedford is a mere 13 miles from Chappaqua, the prestigious town where former President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, the Secretary of State in the Obama administration, bought a home.

Trump issued a statement saying the property was leased on a short-term basis to Middle Eastern partners "who may or may not have a relationship to Mr. Gaddafi" and he was looking into the matter.

(Editing by Daniel Trotta and Philip Barbara)