Libya's foreign ministry summoned the US chargé d'affaires on Sunday to protest against rally statements by President Donald Trump it described as "offensive", after he called the North African nation "terror-infested".

The ministry said it rejected any statements that "undermine the dignity of its people or diminish their standing"

At Saturday's rally in Perry, Georgia, Trump said, “(US Senator) Jon Ossoff personally sponsored a bill to bring armies of migrants from terror-infested countries like Libya, Yemen, Haiti, Somalia. Remember what I called them? Shithouse countries," in a reference to remarks made during his first term

The US was committed to ties with Libya, Trump said on Truth Social on Sunday night, calling its people "proud, resilient, hospitable, and deserving of peace and prosperity"

"We respect the Libyan people and the sacrifices that brave Libyans made fighting ISIS, the common enemy of both our peoples, but Libya cannot remain a corridor for illegal migration, and this must end now," he wrote

Libya's rival administrations in the east and west denounced Trump's remarks, rejecting attempts to draw Libya into what they called "electoral debates"