Special Section: Balkan News 

TUNIS, Feb. 22, 1999 -- (Reuters) Libya said on Sunday it had urged all its students studying in European countries to come home for fear of what it calls a looming nuclear world war over the Balkans.

Libyan state television, commenting on reports that NATO warplanes were poised for action in Yugoslavia over Kosovo, said there were "signs that a nuclear world war will start at any time as a result of this Western colonialist tyranny.

"All Libyan students in Europe are invited to return urgently to Libya," said the television, monitored in Tunis. "The two (previous) world wars started in the Balkans with signs similar to those we are witnessing in the world today."

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has supported the Serbian-led Yugoslav government in its disputes with the West over Bosnia earlier this decade and now over Kosovo. ( (c) 1999 Reuters)