Rice: US committed to ties with Libya (AP) Updated: 2005-09-18 11:43
"We're not to that point yet," McCormack said, adding issues still needed to
be resolved, such as Libya's inclusion on a State Department list of countries
that sponsor terror.
Rice and Shalgam also discussed reform issues, human rights and cooperation
in the elimination of weapons of mass destruction.
She thanked Tripoli for working to resolve the humanitarian crisis in the
Sudanese region of Darfur and for its cooperation in the fight against terror.
Rice said that "as Libya continued this course, it would regain a secure and
respected place among the nations of the world," according to the statement.
Diplomatic relations were severed in 1980 and U.S. economic sanctions remain
in place, costing Libya an estimated $30 million a year in lost business.
In June 2004, the United States opened a liaison office in Tripoli and it
took steps last year toward normalizing trade and investment with Libya,
allowing the import of Libyan oil.
The moves followed Gadhafi's decision in 2003 to pay compensation for the
bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 which killed 270
people. The same year Libya agreed to dismantle its programs for weapons of mass
destruction and allow U.N., American and British inspectors to visit the
facilities.
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