Travelling with his tent and a team of female bodyguards, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi visits Brussels on Tuesday in a rare visit to Western Europe that marks another retreat from pariah status.
The trip comes just days after US President George W. Bush's announcement that Washington was easing 18-year-old economic sanctions on the oil-rich country to reward Tripoli for abandoning its quest for weapons of mass destruction.
It will be the first official visit outside Africa or the Middle East by the maverick Libyan leader since 1989, when he took part in a summit of non-aligned countries in Belgrade, and marks the latest step of his country's re-emergence on to the world stage.
Libya has in the past year tried to end its isolation notably by agreeing to pay-outs to the families of passengers killed in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland and a 1989 attack on a French airliner over Niger.
And in December, Libya announced it would renounce programmes to develop non-conventional and nuclear weapons.
Its actions have earned Libya a lifting of UN economic sanctions and put it back on the path towards international respectability, highlighted by British Prime Minister Tony Blair's handshake with Gaddafi during a visit to Tripoli last month.
In Brussels, the Libyan leader will have lunch with European Commission President Romano Prodi on Tuesday, followed by dinner with Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt.
He will stay in Brussels until Wednesday, although his programme for that day has yet to be finalised, the Belgian foreign ministry said.
Officials in Tripoli said he would be travelling with his own tent and with his entourage of female bodyguards.
The European Union is under pressure to lift its arms embargo on Libya, with Italy in particular pressing for the bloc to offer more help to the north African country in the fight against illegal immigration.
With Libya one of the jumping-off points for hazardous - and often deadly - clandestine crossings by boatloads of illegal migrants heading to Europe, Italy wants to be able to sell the country equipment such as helicopters, radar and night-vision goggles.
But Germany is reportedly holding out against lifting the embargo with Berlin still waiting for Tripoli to compensate victims of an anti-US attack on a discotheque in 1986 which left three people dead and 260 others injured.
The future of the arms embargo is likely to figure in Gaddafi's talks with the European Commission president, along with potential Libyan participation in regular dialogue between the EU and countries on the Mediterranean rim.
"The time has come for Libya to join the circle of EU friends," Prodi said in January.
Libya is gearing up to welcome Western companies following the end of the international sanctions, while Washington's announcement on Friday will open the way in particular for US oil companies to start shipping Libyan crude and investing in the country's dominant petroleum sector.
An official from the state-owned National Oil Company (NOC) said the first oil sale contract with a US company could be signed Monday, and the first loading of crude for the United States made in May.
Foreign Minister Abdul Rahman Shalgam said a bilateral accord reached last year to normalise relations between Tripoli and Washington provides for "Libya to be removed from the terrorism list after the ties are upgraded."
The US decision easing sanctions provides for the State Department to establish a liaison office in Tripoli, a step toward normalising diplomatic relations that were broken off in 1981.
Despite efforts to diversify its economy, Libya remains dependent on oil, which accounts for 94 percent of exports, 60 percent of government income and 30 percent of its 34 billion-dollar gross domestic product.
Comments
Comments are closed.