Britons should leave the Libyan city of Benghazi immediately in response to a "specific, imminent threat" to Westerners, the Foreign Office says.

The British Embassy in Tripoli has been in contact with a "small number" of British nationals whose details it had.

Germany and the Netherlands have also urged their citizens to leave Benghazi.

But Libya's deputy interior minister Abdullah Massoud insisted the security problems in Benghazi did not warrant such a response.

He told the BBC the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Libya had not been informed about the change in travel advice for British nationals.

The minister added he would be contacting the Foreign Office for further clarification and insisted such actions added to instability in the region.

'Credible and serious'

The UK Foreign Office has been advising against travel to Benghazi and most parts of Libya since September.

In its updated travel advice, the Foreign Office said that after the recent French military intervention in Mali against Islamic extremists, there was the possibility of retaliatory attacks against Western interests in the region.

There is also the threat of kidnapping in Libya.

The German government said on its website that it had been "made aware of a specific, imminent threat to Westerners in Benghazi" and urged "all German citizens to immediately leave the city and region of Benghazi".

Thijs van Son, a spokesman for the Dutch foreign ministry, told the Associated Press news agency that travel warnings for Benghazi had been upgraded as the ministry had "reason to believe there was a serious threat".