Nigeria has recalled its ambassador to Tripoli after Libya's leader suggested that the country should be partitioned between Muslims and Christians.

The Nigerian foreign ministry said on Thursday it was recalling its ambassador  because the "irresponsible utterances of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, his  theatrics and grandstanding at every auspicious occasion have become  too numerous to recount."

Gaddafi proposed earlier this week that Nigeria should be partioned like India at the time of its independence in 1947 which led to the creation of Muslim Pakistan.

Gaddafi suggested that a Christian homeland in the south could have Lagos as its capital while a Muslim homeland in the north would  have Abuja as its principal city.

He said the two communities should peacefully agree to share Nigeria's oil and other natural wealth.

Several hundred people were killed in the past two weeks in sectarian violence in Nigeria's central Plateau state.

Plateau state, with Jos as its capital, is the de facto buffer between the predominantly Muslim north and the largely Christian and animist south.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, is divided almost in the middle between the two faiths.