TRIPOLI (Agencies)
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi on a landmark visit to Tripoli Friday, heralding a new chapter in Washington's reconciliation with the former enemy state.
Gaddafi welcomed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to his compound with incense and a genteel bow. The compound in the Libyan capital of Tripoli is the same one that the United States bombed in 1986 in retaliation for what president Reagan claimed was Libya's involvement in a terror bombing that killed two U.S. servicemen.
Rice described her brief visit -- the first to the oil-rich north African country by a US secretary of state in more than half a century -- as "historic" and a sign the United States does not have permanent foes.
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Historic visit While kicking off her historic visit to Libya, Rice hailed the West's reconciliation with the long-ostracized nation.
Rice landed in Tripoli on the first leg of a tour of north African states, becoming the first US secretary of state to visit in more than half a century.
"Quite frankly I never thought I would be visiting Libya so it is quite something," Rice told reporters travelling with her. "It is a beginning, it is an opening, it is not, I think, the end of the story."
Diplomats said Rice, eager to show Iran and North Korea that they could benefit from rapprochement with the West, wants to send a clear message of US approval for Libya's commitment to abandon nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs.
Rice said her visit was a "historic moment" but also highlighted the "suffering" caused by the prolonged standoff with the oil-rich nation which has been led by the mercurial Kadhafi for almost four decades.
"This came out of the historic decision that Libya made to give up its weapons of mass destruction and to renounce terrorism, the important role that Libya can play and does play in the Maghreb, in the African Union," she told reporters during a Lisbon stopover.
"I look forward to listening to the leader's world view," she said, adding that oil was a factor for her visit given Libya's vast reserves of oil and gas.
Rice said that conflicts in Sudan and Chad could also be raised. |
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Dramatic past The visit marks the full renewal of relations with Libya, which were suspended in 1981, when the United States put Gaddafi's government on its list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Libya was forced even further into isolation after the bombing of a US airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988.
The White House said Rice's visit marked a "new chapter."
The last US secretary of state to visit was John Foster Dulles in 1953, who met King Idris -- the ruler ousted in a bloodless military coup in 1969 by Gaddafi.
Richard Nixon, who visited Libya in 1957 when he was vice
president, was the last top-ranking US official to make the trip.
Gaddafi dramatically announced in December 2003 that his country was renouncing weapons of mass destruction and a nuclear program following secret talks with the United States and Britain.
The move saw the Arab world's longest-serving leader gradually emerge from years of international isolation and since then he has held talks with a number of world leaders.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi travelled to Libya last Saturday where he formally apologized for damage inflicted by Italy during the colonial era and signed a five-billion-dollar investment deal by way of compensation.
The Libyan welcomed the end of his regime's long estrangement from Washington.
"The whole business of the conflict between Libya and the United States has been closed once and for all," Gaddafi said. "There will be no more wars, raids or acts of terrorism."
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 Lockerbie bombing as well as victims of US air strikes on Tripoli and Benghazi in April 1986 in which 41 people were killed, including an adopted daughter of Gaddafi. |
