Italy to compensate Libya $5bn

2008-08-30 15:43

Benghazi - Italy agreed to pay Libya $5bn as compensation for its 30-year occupation of the country during the 20th century, the Libyan foreign minister told reporters on Saturday.

Abdel-Rahman Shalgam said that visiting Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was set to sign a memorandum pledging a $5bn compensation package involving construction projects, student grants, and pensions for Libyan soldiers who served with the Italians during the Second World War.

"It is a material and emotional recognition of the mistakes that our country has done to yours during the colonial era," Berlusconi told reporters at the airport on his arrival.

Illegal migrants

"This agreement opens the path to further co-operation."

In return, Italy wants Libya to crack down on illegal migrants turning up on Italian shores and will fund $500m worth of electronic monitoring devices on the Libyan coastline.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi received Berlusconi under a big tent in Benghazi where they discussed the agreement over lunch.

The Italian leader said $200m of the package would be for infrastructure projects over the next 25 years, including a coastal highway stretching across the country from Tunisia to Egypt.

Statue

Berlusconi's office said in a statement that the premier would also hand over to Gaddafi the Venus of Cyrene, an ancient Roman statue taken in 1913 by Italian troops from the ruins of the Greek and Roman settlement of Cyrene, on the Libyan coast.

Relations between the two countries have warmed over the last few years, with Italian leaders meeting Gaddafi several times.

However, it has taken years of negotiations for the two sides to hammer out a deal on compensation for Italy's rule over Libya from 1911 to 1943

Libya named August 30, Libyan-Italian Friendship Day.

- AP