Extra security for US envoys

Following reports of a Libyan plot to assassinate US Ambassador to Italy Maxwell Rabb, US ambassadors in ''danger areas'' have been supplied with bulletproof automobiles and bulletproof vests because of possible trouble from terrorist groups supported by Col. Muammar Qaddafi, the Libyan leader. Sources would not identify the ambassadors given extra security.

Mr. Rabb was called back to Washington at least two weeks ago partly because of a threat by terrorists to kidnap him, administration sources said Sunday.

They disputed a report in Sunday's New York Times that authorities had uncovered a Libyan plot to assassinate Mr. Rabb and that he was hastily recalled to Washington.

Officials said it was a kidnapping threat, though they refused to identify a source for the claim. They would not comment on a possible Libyan connection. But the sources said the main reason Rabb was recalled was to help lobby senators on behalf of the AWACS plane sale to Saudi Arabia. He is expected to return to Rome shortly.