Blair meets Gaddafi for Tripoli talks

Prime Minister Tony Blair has met with the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli today to offer the "hand of partnership" to the renegade state.

Today's visit, the first by a British Prime Minister since Winston Churchill in 1943, is the result of diplomatic efforts by Britain to re-engage Libya with the international community – and turn its back on weapons gathering.

Last December, Number 10 brokered Libya's signing of the UN conventions governing the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction – paving the way for today's meeting.

Mr Blair said yesterday that today's efforts were about recognising and welcoming change when it happens – but he added that the rehabilitation of Libya did not mean "forgetting the pain of the past".

The Opposition pointed out today that the timing of Mr Blair visit was unfortunate, given that he flew into Tripoli just hours after attending a Madrid memorial service to the 190 victims of the recent terror bombings.

The Madrid atrocity ranks behind the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 as the worst-ever attack in Europe. A Libyan secret service agent, Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, is serving life for his involvement in the 1988 attack which caused the deaths of 270 people.

Opposition Leader Michael Howard said: "It is quite odd timing to go from a service which commemorates the victims of the biggest terrorist attack on Europe since Lockerbie, to go straight from there to Libya. I imagine it will cause considerable distress to the families of the victims of Lockerbie."

Shadow Foreign Secretary and Deputy Conservative leader Michael Ancram has written a letter to 10 Downing Street advising Mr Blair to "sup with a long spoon" when he meets Colonel Gaddafi.

An undiplomatic spanner was thrown into the works last month, when the country's prime minister said that Libya was not responsible for the Lockerbie bombing and paid out compensation to the families of the victims in order to "buy peace".

In an interview with Radio 4's 'Today' programme, Dr Shukri Ghanem suggested that sanctions against Libya had had a crippling effect on the nation's economy, forcing it to adopt a policy of buying its way out of trouble.

Last year, the families of the Lockerbie bomb victims received compensation totalling around £2.2 million each.

Dr Ghanem went on to say that his country did not accept responsibility for the death of Wpc Yvonne Fletcher, who was shot outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984 during a protest by an anti-Gaddafi group.

(gmcg)