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Rice, Gadhafi to Meet in Libya

Posted on: Friday, 5 September 2008, 15:00 CDT

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Libya, Friday, the first time a top-ranking U.S. diplomat has visited the African nation in 50 years.

Rice is scheduled to meet with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and other officials in Tripoli, the country's capital, CNN reported.

In Portugal, before flying to Tripoli, Rice called the mission "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 "is a place that is changing and I want to discuss how that change is taking place," she told reporters.

After Libya, Rice has stops scheduled for Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

In 2003, Gadhafi gave up his programs to develop weapons of mass destruction and abandoned his support of international terrorism, The Washington Post said. Libya also agreed to pay $2.7 billion to families of the 270 victims of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, and U.S. officials say its government assisted in slowing the number foreign fighters from North Africa into Iraq.

The United States restored relations with Tripoli in 2005.

Source: United Press International

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