U.S. lifts ban on Muslim scholar - official

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. administration has lifted a ban on a planned visit by a leading European Muslim critic of the Iraq war, a U.S. official said on Wednesday, in a move hailed by a rights group as a victory for civil liberties.

The scholar, Professor Tariq Ramadan of Oxford University, said the decision showed what he called a new U.S. willingness to permit critical debate. He had been barred from the United States due to alleged terrorism ties, which he denies.