Rice on historic Libya visit

2008-09-05 12:05

Lisbon - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice travels to Libya on Friday for a landmark meeting with its leader Muammar Gaddaffi to mark the end of the Arab nation's international isolation.

It will be the first time in 55 years that a US secretary of state has visited Tripoli.

Eager to show Iran and North Korea that they could benefit from a rapprochement with the West, Rice will use the visit to send a clear message of US approval for Libya's commitment to abandon its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programmes, diplomats said.

Rice's visit also marks the full renewal of relations with Libya, which were suspended in 1981, when the United States put Gaddaffi's government on its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

She will hold talks with Libya's Foreign Minister Abdelrahman Mohammed Shalgam before joining an Iftar meal - marking the end of the day's Ramadan fast - with Gaddaffi.

"The secretary's visit to Libya signifies a new chapter in US-Libya bilateral relations," said State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack ahead of Rice's tour that started in Portugal on Thursday and will also take in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.

'No more wars, raids'

"It's also an important milestone in marking the success of this administration's non-proliferation policy," McCormack said.

The last US secretary of state to visit Libya was John Foster Dulles, who met with Libya's ruler, King Idris Senussi, in 1953.

Gaddaffi announced in December 2003 that his country was renouncing weapons of mass destruction following secret talks with the United States and Britain.

"Libya is an example that, if countries make a different set of choices than they are making currently, they can have a different kind of relationship with the United States and the rest of the world, that we will follow through on our commitments," McCormack said.

Gaddaffi has hailed the end of his regime's long estrangement from the United States.

"The whole business of the conflict between Libya and the United States has been closed once and for all," Gaddaffi said this week in a speech marking the 39th anniversary of his overthrowal of the Western-backed monarchy.

"There will be no more wars, raids or acts of terrorism," said Gaddaffi, whose support for militant groups in the 1980s prompted US President Ronald Reagan to describe him as a "mad dog".

But Gaddaffi also stressed that Libya was not desperate for US friendship. "All we want is to be left alone," he said.

Rice's visit comes less than a month after the two governments reached an agreement on a plan to compensate US victims of Libyan attacks and Libyan victims of US reprisals.

The deal focused on the families of the 270 victims of the 1988 bombing of a US airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland - the deadliest attack blamed on Gaddaffi's regime.

Issue of human rights

But it also covered victims of US air strikes on Tripoli and Benghazi on April 16, 1986, in which 41 people were killed, including an adopted daughter of Gaddaffi.

The compensation accord, signed August 14, was one of the final pieces of the diplomatic puzzle allowing the full normalisation of relations.

Rice plans to discuss the war on terror and the conflicts in Chad and Sudan with the Libyan leader, according to McCormack.

She also plans to raise the issue of human rights with him, including the case of dissident Fathi al-Jahmi, who has been held since 2004 for criticising the government.

Rice will leave during the night for Tunisia, the next stop on the tour.

- AFP