Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi arrived in New York to address the United Nations General Assembly, drawing crowds of supporters in New York and meeting with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

Libya assumed the rotating presidency of the General Assembly last week and Qaddafi is scheduled to address the body today, after U.S. President Barack Obama.

Speculation has swirled around where Qaddafi will stay during his visit. The U.S. State Department said on Aug. 28 the Libyan leader wouldn’t pitch a Bedouin-style tent on property owned by his government in Englewood, New Jersey.

The Journal-News in Westchester County reported that he arranged to use real estate developer Donald Trump’s estate in Bedford, about 45 miles northeast of Manhattan. Town authorities yesterday ordered workers to stop erecting a tent because they lacked a permit, according to the report.

Trump’s office said it was looking into the matter. The property was leased “on a short-term basis to Middle Eastern partners who may or may not have a relationship” with Qaddafi, it said in an e-mailed statement.

Ahmed Gebreel, a spokesman for the Libyan mission in New York, said he couldn’t say where Qaddafi would be staying.

Qaddafi has ruled the North African nation since he took power in a military coup in 1969.

Libya’s Mission

He met with Farrakhan yesterday at Libya’s mission on 48th Street near the UN, while several hundred supporters of the Nation of Islam leader -- all men and nearly all dressed in suits with bowties or neatly knotted cravats -- waited outside.

Farrakhan left in a caravan of limousines and sport utility vehicles, waving from the sunroof of an armored stretch Mercedes.

Across the street from the Farrakhan entourage, about 200 Libyans gathered holding signs that read “Welcome King of Kings of Africa” and “Brother Qaddafi, Welcome to the United States.”

“I am so very happy my leader will be here,” said Ali Mohammed al-Maksudi, a 39-year-old from Tripoli, who said he is studying film at the University of California in Los Angeles. “He is so smart, intelligent, wide-minded and has respect for all human society.”

Between the two groups, a woman with her hair in two thick braids said she was an American Indian from central California, waiting to meet with Qaddafi to enlist the Libyan leader’s help in freeing Leonard Peltier.

American Indian

Peltier is an American Indian who is in prison for the 1975 shooting of two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents during a standoff between American Indian activists and police on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

“We came to ask Mr. Qaddafi to help,” said the 57-year- old woman, who gave her name as Mdewakontonwak. “He’s the great revolutionary leader who freed his people.”

Libya was considered a state sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. until 2006, over the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.

Libya and the U.S. established diplomatic relations in January, after the U.S. received $1.5 billion to settle claims from the Lockerbie bombing and other attacks against U.S. citizens.

To contact the reporter on this story: Peter S. Green in New York at psgreen@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 23, 2009 01:57 EDT