A Libyan woman who accused soldiers loyal to strongman Moamer Kadhafi of raping her is recovering from trauma at a refugee centre in western Romania, a UN official said on Wednesday.

Iman al-Obeidi, who was evacuated from Libya to Romania on Monday, needs "space and privacy in order to begin the process of recovering from traumatic events," the representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Romania, Machiel Salomons, told a press conference.

He declined to provide details of her current condition, citing safety reasons.

Salomons said the maximum stay at the refugee centre in Timisoara was six months.

"It is impossible to predict where she will be going next," he stressed, adding that "out of respect for her, the UNHCR prefers not to disclose any information" as to her final destination.

But he added that all the refugees at the centre are in the process of being interviewed for resettlement by either the United States or The Netherlands.

A senior US official had said Tuesday the United States was prepared to welcome her, as long as she went through the normal refugee process.

Her application would be expedited but she would still have to meet standard resettlement requirements, the US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Al-Obeidi, 29, attracted international media attention when she stormed into the Rixos hotel in Tripoli on March 26 and threw open her coat to reveal scars and bruises on her body.

She accused forces loyal to Kadhafi of abusing her after she was stopped at a checkpoint in Tripoli.

Al-Obeidi had escaped from Libya to Qatar with the help of rebels, but Qatar sent her back to rebel-held Libya despite concerns for her safety, UN and US officials said.

On Monday she was evacuated to Timisoara on a regular flight from Malta, with a stop-over in Vienna, Salomons said.