Gadafy Repairs Relations With the West

Muammar Gadafy has spent years trying to come in from the cold, but the long-delayed release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor accused of infecting hundreds of children with the HIV virus is the masterstroke that should unlock the doors to a better relationship with Europe and the US.

It is striking that in the final stages of this eight-year drama, officials in Tripoli were demanding a political quid pro quo - a promise by the EU to "normalize" ties with Libya, putting it on the same footing for trade, aid and investment as other "Mediterranean partners".

"We open a new page in relations with Libya," said a delighted Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European commissioner for external relations, as she arrived at Sofia airport with the medics. For Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president - seen by some as grandstanding over the affair - the goal was no less than to "help Libya rejoin the international community".

The case fits into a familiar pattern of the Gadafy regime trying to make up for past errors or crimes and then reaping the benefits. Back in the 1980s the colonel gave Britain details of past arms shipments to the IRA. Then came the long aftermath of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, culminating in the surrender of two Libyan intelligence agents for trial in a Scottish court in the Netherlands. After the September 11 2001 attacks, the pariah Ronald Reagan bombed even cooperated with George Bush's "war on terror".

Libya's big ticket to respectability was handed over at the end of 2003 in the worrying aftermath of the war in Iraq, when Gadafy revealed his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction to MI6 and the CIA and shipped it off to the US. Not only did he stave off Baghdad-style regime change, but he opened a new chapter for his Jamahiriyah, or "state of the masses". Sanctions have now been lifted, and earlier this month the US named a new ambassador to Tripoli - the ultimate seal of approval after a 35-year absence.

These days western leaders and executives flock to the colonel's tent. Foreign energy companies are again a huge presence in Libya, bidding to exploit the country's vast oil and gas reserves and finance urgent modernization work. Tourism is opening up and English-language teaching is booming as young Libyans rush to catch up with a globalized world.

Libya today is a country on the cusp of dramatic change. Its state media are as turgid as ever, but access to the internet and satellite TV means that ordinary people can surf the web and watch al-Jazeera and the BBC. Repression is less obvious and some political exiles have returned home.

Still, economic benefits have yet to trickle down from a narrow elite. Bureaucracy is stifling and infrastructure is rickety - including in the public health system (with western scientists consistently blaming poor hygiene rather than the Bulgarian nurses for the spread of HIV).

It is no accident that Gadafy's son and possible heir, Seif al-Islam, played a key role in the labyrinthine negotiations that led to the medics' release. It was clear to this quintessential modernizer that as long as it was unresolved, the issue was a brake on Libya's further rapprochement with the west.

Thus the vital importance of compensation for the relatives of the 460 children affected, and their agreement to waive their right to demand the death penalty, especially since Benghazi is a traditional center of opposition to the regime. Once that deal was done, the way to the endgame and the airport - and Libya's return to the fold - was finally clear.