The Canadian High Commission in Kenya denied Osman Saleh Mohammed a permit to travel to the country a few weeks ago, the foreign ministry said in a statement from Asmara. He was to make a speech to expatriate Eritreans.

"This muddled decision is difficult to decipher and understand by any standards. The government of Eritrea strongly condemns this hostile act and expressly requests the Canadian authorities to rectify this outrageous conduct," the statement said.

It described the move as an "embarrassing aberration in diplomatic conduct."

In addition, it released the High Commission's letter that said Osman's involvement in the 1961-1991 independence war rendered him inadmissible.

"Specifically, you were a member of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front between 1979 and 1991. The EPLF was a group that engaged in the subversion of a government by force."

"Canadian Federal Court jurisprudence confirms that membership in a group that attempts to subvert even a despotic government is sufficient to render inadmissibility," the letter read.

Osman was a member of the EPLF, which fought Ethiopian dictator Haile Mengistu Mariam, whose regime slaughtered tens of thousands until he was toppled in 1991.

Most western powers have kept former African rebels -- some in power -- who participated in Cold-war era freedom struggles in their terrorism watch lists despite having diplomatic ties.

In June, US lawmakers removed former South African president Nelson Mandela and his African National Congress from a three-decade old immigration watch list for possible terrorists.

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