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Weldon, a Republican from Pennsylvania, met today with Gadhafi's chief of staff in Tripoli and is scheduled to talk to the leader himself later today, New York's WPIX-TV reported from Libya.
Writing in today's New York Times, Weldon said he's leading a private delegation to Libya and is hoping to persuade Gadhafi to "step aside."
"First, we must engage face-to-face with Colonel [Gadhafi] and persuade him to leave, as my delegation hopes to do," Weldon wrote. "I've met him enough times to know that it will be very hard to simply bomb him into submission.
"Simultaneously, we must obtain an immediate United Nations-monitored cease-fire, with the Libyan Army withdrawing from contested cities and rebel forces ending attempts to advance," he wrote.
Weldon, 63, went to Libya in 2004 as part of a congressional delegation supporting Gadhafi's decision to give up its nuclear weapons program. Weldon wrote of meeting then with with Gadhafi and regular people as well as addressing the annual meeting of Libyan legislators.
Weldon told CNN he had 14 meetings with "everyone in the administration" in 2004 and toured a nuclear facility.
A former 10-term congressman, Weldon was once vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and the Homeland Security Committee.
He wrote that he was invited on today's trip by Gadhafi's chief of staff. He said in the Times that the Obama administration and members of Congress knew about the trip. The State Department had no immediate comment.
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Weldon served in Congress from 1987 until 2007, after losing re-election to Democrat Joe Sestak. The loss came months after the FBI began looking into accusations that Weldon used his position to help a company created by his daughter and a friend doing business in the former Soviet Union, according to The Associated Press.Before serving in Congress, he was a teacher, a volunteer fire chief, mayor of his native Marcus Hook, Pa., and a member of the Delaware County, Pa., City Council, according to a congressional biography.
He graduated from West Chester State College in West Chester, Pa.
A LinkedIn listing for Weldon says he is chief strategic officer at Defense Solutions and owner of Jenkins Hill International. Neither company returned a message from AOL News today.
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