Obama Sending US Envoy Back to Libya, Pledges Support

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Barack Obama announced on Tuesday he was sending the U.S. ambassador back to Tripoli to reopen the embassy there and pledged support for Libya's transitional government as he called on the last of Muammar Gaddafi's loyalists to lay down their arms.

"We will stand with you in your struggle to realize the peace and prosperity that freedom can bring," Obama said in a message to the Libyan people in prepared remarks for a U.N. conference on Libya's reconstruction. He was to meet first with Mustafa Abdul Jalil, chairman of Libya's Transitional National Council (TNC). (Reporting by Laura MacInnis and Matt Spetalnick; editing by Philip Barbara)