WASHINGTON - The United States has limited travel of Syria's ambassador to the United Nations, the State Department confirmed on Wednesday.

Spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki told reporters that a diplomatic note was delivered to Bashar Ja'afari at the end of last month, in which he was told that "he is restricted to a 25-mile travel radius" of New York City.

"I'm not in a position to comment any further on it," Psaki said at a regular news briefing, but she agreed that the ambassador is not allowed now to travel at all even if he asks for permission.

"UN delegates of certain countries are required to notify us or obtain permission prior to travel outside of a 25-mile (40-km) radius, so this is not something that is out of the realm of what we've done before," she added.

Ja'afari took his current post in 2006.