Rice meets with Libya leader

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/09/05/libya.us/

Rice meets with Libya leader
9-5-8
From Elise Labott
CNN State Department Producer

Story Highlights
Condoleezza Rice meets with Moammar Gadhafi in Libya
First trip to Libya by a U.S. secretary of state in more than 50 years
Libya's journey from pariah nation has taken several years
U.S. companies hoping to take advantage on new friendlier relations

TRIPOLI, Libya (CNN) -- The U.S.'s most senior diplomat, Condoleezza Rice, arrived in Libya on Friday and met with leader Moammar Gadhafi.

It was the first time in more than half a century that a U.S. secretary of state has visited the former pariah nation.

Rice and Gadhafi met in a reception room at the Libyan's Bab Al Azizi compound where the man President Reagan dubbed "the mad dog in the Middle East" asked for the latest news on hurricanes threatening the U.S. coasts.

"The first one was not as bad as feared, but there are two more coming," Rice told him.

Gadhafi, wearing a white robe and a black fez but not his trademark dark sunglasses, shook the hands of the male members of Rice's staff but not Rice, instead offering the traditional greeting of his hand over his heart for her.

Muslim men are prohibited from shaking hands with women to whom they are not related.

After their meeting, Gadhafi, who once called Rice "Leeza ... my darling black African woman," was hosting a dinner for Rice.

Last year in an interview with Arabic TV station al Jazeera, Gadhafi suggested that Rice ran the Arab world, with which he has sometimes had stark differences.

"I admire and am very proud of the way she leans back and gives orders to the Arab leaders," he said. "I love her very much because she's a black woman of African origin."

The two are expected to meet in the leader's Bedouin tent he favors for high-profile meetings.

Upon her arrival Friday, Rice met with the Libyan foreign minister and then toured the new U.S. embassy.

Rice's visit marks a 180-degree turn from relations between Washington and Tripoli, which for more than three decades have been marked by personal animosity and insults, Libyan terror attacks and U.S. airstrikes.

Libya's rehabilitation from a "state sponsor of terrorism" represents a rare foreign policy success for the Bush administration in its last months in office.

In Portugal, before flying to Tripoli, Rice called her trip "a historic moment, and it is one that has come after a lot of difficulty, the suffering of many people that will never be forgotten or assuaged, a lot of Americans in particular."

Libya, she acknowledged, "is a place that is changing, and I want to discuss how that change is taking place." Watch excitement in Libya at Rice's trip »

"I am very much looking forward to it," she said.

The United States restored relations with Tripoli in 2005, after Gadhafi abandoned his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, renounced terrorism and agreed to compensate victims of the 1986 La Belle disco bombing in Berlin, Germany, and the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. Libya was also dropped for the U.S. list of "state sponsors of terrorism," the only country except from Iraq to be removed.

Since then, several U.S. officials have visited Tripoli, and Rice has met several times with her Libyan counterpart. The United States opened its embassy in Tripoli in 2006.

The United States has praised Libya's cooperation in fighting terrorism in North Africa, where al Qaeda has been gaining a foothold. U.S. officials also say Gadhafi has prevented Libyan and other foreign fighters from traveling to Iraq to join insurgent movements.

At the U.N., Libya has also voted with the United States to crack down on Iran's nuclear program and has sought to play a helpful role in the crisis in Darfur, Sudan.

Yet relations between the two countries face strains over Libya's poor human rights record and final settlement of claims from the La Belle and Pan Am bombings.

In her meetings with Libyan officials, Rice is expected to raise the issue of political prisoners, especially Fathi al -Jahami, a leading Libyan reformer being held in detention since 2002.

Last month, the United States and Libya reached a deal to resolve outstanding claims for the bombings, but Libya has yet to contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to a fund set up to compensate the victims' families.

Many of the Lockerbie families have criticized Rice's decision to meet with Gadhafi, whom they say remains unrepentant for the Lockerbie attack which killed 280 people, 180 of them American.

In a recent interview with the BBC, Gadhafi's son Saif al-Islam al-Gadhafi called the Lockerbie families "very greedy" and "trading with the blood of their sons and daughters" for money.

The Bush administration has expressed sympathy with the Lockerbie families but says it is time to move forward with a new relationship with Libya.

The deal paves the way for greater access by U.S. companies to Libya's booming economy, in particular its vast oil reserves, the ninth largest in the world.

European companies have had much greater access to Libya's energy sector, but Libyan officials say the improved relations with the United States will result in more deals with U.S. oil companies, including exploring vast areas of the country which remain untapped.

The country's growing banking, infrastructure and telecommunications sectors also offer enormous opportunities for U.S. investors.

Rice will travel throughout North Africa after leaving Tripoli, stopping in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. But is the visit to Libya which the State Department recognizes will be the most talked about.

Libya • Condoleezza Rice • Moammar Gadhafi