Gadafy Gets His Reward As Rice Visits Libya

Condoleezza Rice last night became the most senior US official to visit Libya in more than half a century when she arrived for a meeting with its leader, Muammar Gadafy.

The visit, which Rice described as historic, was a reward for Gadafy's strategic decision over the past seven years to distance himself from extremism and give up weapons of mass destruction, providing a positive example to Iran.

It was also designed to highlight a rare diplomatic success for the Bush administration in its final months. Washington claims the Iraq invasion is partly responsible for Gadafy's decision to surrender a nuclear program built from components bought from the notorious Pakistani nuclear smuggler, AQ Khan.

The visit was kept secret until a few hours before Rice landed. It was agreed only on Wednesday after a deal was struck on setting up a joint fund to compensate the civilian victims of a Libyan bomb attack on a Berlin disco in 1986, retaliatory American air strikes on Tripoli and Benghazi the same year, and the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988, in which 270 people were killed.

In 2001, a Libyan intelligence agent handed over by Gadafy was found guilty of the Lockerbie bombing. In 2006, Libya was removed from the US state department list of sponsors of terrorism.

The compensation issue had yet to be finally resolved when Rice landed, as Libya had not made an expected payment.

"It is 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, Americans in particular for whom I am very concerned," Rice told reporters in Lisbon.

"It is also the case that this comes out of a historic decision that Libya made to give up weapons of mass destruction and renounce terrorism," she said. "Libya is a place that is changing and I want to discuss how that change is taking place - because a more open Libya ... will be also good for Libya and for the international community."

The state department team was reported to be nervous about Rice's meeting with Gadafy, who is known to be volatile. Her handshake with the man who Ronald Reagan called "the mad dog of the Middle East" was expected to take place in a tent in the desert surrounded by his female bodyguards, but American officials warned that the venue could change.

Gadafy has been unstatesman like in previous remarks about Rice, who he calls Leezza. "I support my darling black African woman," Gadafy told al-Jazeera television last year. "I admire and am very proud of the way she leans back and gives orders to the Arab leaders ... Leezza, Leezza, Leezza ... I love her very much. I admire her and I'm proud of her because she's a black woman of African origin."

The US and Libya are expected to sign a trade and investment deal during the visit. The countries are also negotiating a "military memorandum of understanding" on combating terrorism and preventing the flow of Arab and north African insurgents to Iraq.