TRIPOLI, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- Libya has asked a diplomat with the U.S. embassy in Tripoli to leave the country within 24 hours over "breaching diplomatic rules and norms," two Libyan newspapers reported Sunday.

The Libyan authorities asked the political affairs secretary at the U.S. embassy Luke Reynolds -- a transliteration from Arabic -- to leave the country within 24 hours, Oea newspaper reported on its website, quoting informed sources.

According to the report, the move came after the diplomat visited the city of Yifrin, 130 kilometers south-west of the capital Tripoli.

The visit was seen by the Libyan authorities to be against the diplomatic rules and norms, the report said.

Another Libyan paper, Quryna, also reported that the local authorities asked a U.S. embassy staffer to leave the country after visiting a Berber-dominated region, 130 south-west of the capital.

Washington in 2004 lifted a trade embargo on Libya and both sides restored diplomatic ties after Tripoli renounced banned weapons programs.

The move ended decades long confrontation between the two sides after a U.S. aircraft bombed in the Libyan capital in 1986 after Washington blamed Libya for a bomb attack on a discotheque in West Berlin that killed two Americans.