The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held a landmark meeting with the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to seal a reconciliation with the former US enemy. Ms Rice said today before leaving that the United States and Libya had decided "to move forward in a positive way" and deal "as well as we can with issues of the past". The first US secretary of state to visit Tripoli in 55 years exchanged gifts with Mr Gaddafi ? he gave her a lute instrument and she presented a shield with the department's coat of arms.
But the tensions have not completely disappeared. The Libyan foreign minister Abdelrahman Mohammed Shalgam said his country does not need "pressure" or "lectures" on human rights, one of the issues raised by Ms Rice in talks. Ms Rice declared however: "After many, many years it is a good thing that the US and Libya found a way forward." She praised some "strategic choices" made by Libya. "This is a good time for a constructive relationship between the US and Libya to emerge," Ms Rice said.
Mr Shalgam said the world has change and Ms Rice's groundbreaking visit to Libya was proof of the new mood. "The time of confrontation is over. There may still be differences of opinion but this will not endanger the relationship." Ms Rice earlier described her brief visit as "historic". "That is not to say that everything has by any means been settled between the United States and Libya. There is a long way to go," she told reporters travelling with her.
"But I do believe that it has demonstrated that the United States doesn't have permanent enemies. It demonstrates that when countries are prepared to make strategic changes in direction the United States is prepared to respond." Diplomats said Ms Rice wanted Iran and North Korea to know that they could benefit from rapprochement with the West, highlighting Libya's commitment to abandon nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programmes.
Ms Rice met Mr Gaddafi ? once described by the former US president Ronald Reagan as a "mad dog" ? at his Tripoli residence, Bab al Azizia, which was hit in US bombing raids ordered by Mr Reagan in 1986. After talks they shared an Iftar meal, which breaks the fast during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan. Ms 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.
Both sides acknowledged they have differences and Ms Rice said she had raised with Mr Gaddafi the issue of human rights, including the case of jailed dissident Fathi al Jahmi, 66. "It is important to have dialogue, including on issues of human rights," she said at the news conference. "As this relationship goes forward and deepens it will continue to be important for us to have transparency and to talk about these issues in a respectful way."
Mr Shalgam, however, clearly angry at the question raised at the news conference, said Mr Jahmi was receiving medical treatment at a private clinic. "We care about our own people," he said. "We do need not anybody to come put pressure on us or give us lectures." US-Libya ties were suspended in 1981 when Washington put Mr Gaddafi's regime on its list of state sponsors of terrorism. It was forced even further into isolation after the bombing of a US airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.
The White House said Ms Rice's visit marked a "new chapter" and that cooperation could expand in education and culture, commerce, science and technology, and security and human rights. 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 led in 1969 by Mr Gaddafi. Last year, Mr Gaddafi proclaimed his love for "Leezza", telling al Jazeera television: "I support my darling black African woman. I admire and am very proud of the way she leans back and gives orders to the Arab leaders."
Mr Gaddafi's December 2003 announcement that he was giving up weapons programmes followed secret talks with the US and Britain. Ms Rice moved on to Tunisia, a strong US military ally with whom it is trying to negotiate a free trade deal. She will go from there to Algeria and Morocco. *AFP
