Rice meets Kadhafi on historic Libya visit

TRIPOLI, Sept 6, 2008 (AFP)

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held a landmark meeting with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi to seal a reconciliation with the former US enemy.

Rice said Saturday 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 Kadhafi - 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.

Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelrahman Mohammed Shalgam said his country does not need "pressure" or "lectures" on human rights, one of the issues raised by Rice in talks.

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," Rice said.

Shalgam said the world has change and 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."

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 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. Rice met Kadhafi - once described by President Ronald Reagan as a "mad dog" - at his Tripoli residence, Bab al Azizia, which was hit in US bombing raids ordered by Reagan in 1986. After talks they shared an Iftar meal which breaks the fast during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.