Blair seals Gaddafi's return to fold with historic handshake

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday shook hands with Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in the latest stage of the international rehabilitation of the man once branded "the mad dog of the Middle East".

After two hours of talks in a tent outside the Libyan capital Tripoli, Mr Blair said he wanted to offer Col Gaddafi "the hand of friendship" following his decision to give up weapons of mass destruction and renounce terrorism.

Mr Blair admitted it felt "strange" to be visiting a state which was a pariah for decades because of its involvement in atrocities including the bombing of Pan-Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, the murder of policewoman Yvonne Fletcher and supply of arms to the IRA.

But he said it was right, in the wake of the September 11 atrocities, to recognise Libya's new willingness to become a partner in the fight against terror. Since Col Gaddafi's dramatic declaration last December that he would give up nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, Libya had offered "full and transparent co-operation" in the dismantling of illicit arms programmes, said Mr Blair. "Libya's voluntary and open implementation of that decision gives us real hope that we can build a new relationship with it, one for the modern world," he said.

"I was particularly struck at our earlier meeting with Col Gaddafi by his insistence not only of Libya's determination to carry on down this path of co-operation but also his recognition that Libya's own future is best secured by a new relationship with the outside world and a recognition also of a common cause with us in the fight against al-Qaida, extremism and terrorism, which threatens not just the western world but the Arab world also."

Mr Blair's visit coincided with carefully choreographed announcements that British police investigating the 1984 shooting of Pc Fletcher will visit Libya next month, and that Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell is signing a multi-million pound deal with the north African state.

Britain is expected to develop closer military co-operation with Tripoli, with Libyan officers potentially coming to train at Sandhurst, while arms manufacturer BAE Systems is one of several British companies thought likely to strike lucrative deals as Libya opens up to international investors. Mr Blair was offered the red carpet treatment on his arrival in Tripoli, where his chartered BA jet was met by a Revolutionary Guard of Honour. Crowds lined the streets as his motorcade sped towards the tent used by Col Gaddafi to greet visiting dignitaries in farmland known simply as Al Macan or "the place".

As the two leaders shook hands, with camels grazing nearby, Mr Blair said: "It's good to be here after so many months."

Col Gaddafi responded: "You look good. You are still young."

In a solo press conference following the talks, Mr Blair said he had made clear to Col Gaddafi that nothing he now did could "alter the pain of past actions".

"In reaching out the hand of partnership today, we do not forget the past," he said. "But we do try in the light of the genuine changes happening to move beyond them."

Mr Blair acknowledged that former US President Ronald Reagan and ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher would have found it "very difficult to believe" when they co-operated in air strikes on Tripoli in 1986 that a British premier would one day sit down with Gaddafi.

But he said: "Times change and when they do change, we should be prepared to change with them, provided the change is real."