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Libya's return from international outcast status edged forward Thursday with the first meeting in Washington between the top U.S. and Libyan diplomats in 36 years.For many critics, however, it is too soon to normalize ties with a regime with one of the world's worst human rights records. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Foreign Minister Abdelrahman Mohammed Shalgam for about an hour, during which-State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said-she urged Muammar Gadaffi's government to respect human rights.Rice also said Libya should resolve outstanding claims by families of American victims of terrorists acts linked to the Libyan government."Secretary Rice also reiterated her intent to visit Libya at the appropriate time," the department said in a statement, holding out the possibility of the first visit to Tripoli by a secretary of state since the 1950s.After the meeting, the State Department said, the U.S. and the "Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya" signed a science and technology cooperation deal-the first such bilateral agreement between the two governments since the re-establishment of diplomatic ties in 2004.The department called the agreement "an important step in recognizing Libya's historic renunciation of weapons of mass destruction and positive re-engagement with the international community." In December 2003, Libya announced that it would eliminate its nuclear and chemical weapons programs. Two months earlier, a German-owned ship carrying uranium centrifuge equipment destined for Libya was stopped and diverted to Italy, an incident which Rice said later played a "major role" in Libya's decision to shut down its WMD programs, and in exposing a nuclear black market run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founder of Pakistan's nuclear program.The move paved the way for a slow improvement in bilateral ties, and in 2006 the State Department removed Libya from its list of terror-sponsoring states and normalized diplomatic relations.Although ties were restored to ambassadorial level, however, Congress is holding up funds to build a new U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, and some lawmakers have also pledged to block confirmation of a new American ambassador.The reason: Libya's failure to finalize the promised payment of compensation to the families of victims of the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing, which cost 270 lives; and to the victims of a 1986 bombing of a Berlin discotheque, which killed two American servicemen and wounded scores more."Congress has made it clear that the U.S. is not ready for full normalization of relations with Libya," Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and seven other senators wrote in a letter to Rice last month.They cited passage of the State Department and Foreign Operations Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2008, "which would block the construction of a new U.S. embassy in Tripoli and prevent support for energy investment there until these settlements are fulfilled." President Bush signed the bill into law on Dec. 26.Lautenberg said in a statement Thursday, "t is time for the Libyans to address these issues with the seriousness they deserve and for Libya to provide justice for all American victims of these attacks."To read more go to:
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