Blair meets Libyan Foreign Minister in London

Jerusalem Post ^ | Feb. 10, 2004 | ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Prime Minister Tony Blair met the Libyan Foreign Minister Tuesday, the highest-level contact between the two countries in more than 20 years.

Britain said the visit of Abdel-Rahman Shalqam, who is scheduled to meet also with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, was a major step in Libya's journey back into the international fold.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said the visit was a "milestone in what have been steadily improving relations" between the two countries.

The visit follows three-way meetings in London involving senior officials from Britain, Libya and the United States. The US Embassy in London said the talks were "very positive and thorough."

Britain has been involved for years in delicate diplomacy to end Libya's isolation. The breakthrough came in December, when Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi announced that the country would give up its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs.

Since then, US and British officials have praised Libya's progress toward scrapping weapons of mass destruction, although the United States has retained its 17-year embargo and has kept Libya on the list of nations that sponsor terrorism.

Britain broke off diplomatic relations with the North African state in 1984, after a British policewoman was killed by a shot fired from a window of the Libyan embassy in London during an anti-Gaddafi protest.

Britain restored ties in with Libya in 1999. In 2002 a junior government minister, Mike O'Brien, visited the country.

The UN Security Council ended sanctions against Libya last September after Gaddafi's government took responsibility for the bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988 and agreed to pay US$2.7 billion to the victims' families.