Rice arrives on historic Libya visit

Top US diplomat Condoleezza Rice arrived in Tripoli yesterday on the first trip by a US secretary of state to Libya since 1953, and said it was proof that Washington had no "permanent enemies".

Dr Rice was set to meet Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi during her brief trip, which Washington hopes will end decades of enmity and violence and comes five years after Libya gave up its weapons of mass destruction programme in 2003.

"This demonstrates that the US doesn't have permanent enemies," Dr Rice told reporters travelling with her to Tripoli, a a normally sleepy port city where streets were cleared for her motorcade as it sped from the airport to government offices.

"It demonstrates that when countries are prepared to make strategic changes in direction, the United States is prepared to respond. Quite frankly I never thought I would be visiting Libya and so it is quite something," she said.

"This trip is acknowledging how far the US-Libyan relationship has come, but it is the beginning and not the end of the story."

US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles was the last top US diplomat to visit Tripoli and made the trip in May 1953, before Dr Rice was born. Libya is a major oil exporter.

Dr Rice met Libya's Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam and was later expected to share an Iftar dinner with Colonel Gaddafi, the traditional meal breaking the fast during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Dr Rice held back from visiting Libya until a compensation package was signed last month to cover legal claims involving victims of US and Libyan bombings.

Dr Rice said she was looking forward to meeting Colonel Gaddafi - once called "the mad dog of the Middle East" by President Ronald Reagan - and planned to discuss, among other issues, the conflict in Sudan and Libya's "important" role there.

Col Gaddafi has in the past expressed admiration for Dr Rice.

"I support my darling black African woman," he said in an interview with al Jazeera last year. "I admire and am very proud of the way she leans back and gives orders to the Arab leaders," he continued. "I love her very much. I admire her, and I'm proud of her, because she's a black woman of African origin."

Dr Rice may sign a trade and investment deal during her visit.

Washington is also negotiating a "military memorandum of understanding" with Libya, which cooperates in fighting terrorism and has helped stem the flow of insurgents into Iraq, the State Department said, without giving details.

Despite the success touted by Washington in Libya, Dr Rice faces bad news elsewhere from North Korea to Iran as she tries to score further diplomatic victories in the final months of President George W. Bush's administration.

In Libya, Dr Rice is expected to raise some human rights issues and to push Col Gaddafi on the compensation deal signed on August 14.

Libya finalized the legal arrangements on Wednesday for setting up a fund into which money will be paid, but one senior US official said it would take "more than days" before payments could be made to both sides.