Gaddafi makes first trip to West for 15 years

Making his first trip to the West in 15 years, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was aiming today to improve relations with the European Union despite lingering charges of human rights abuses by his government.

Workers were erecting a prayer tent for Gaddafi on the wooded estate at Val Duchesse, a royal mansion on the outskirts of Brussels used by the Belgian government for visiting dignitaries.

His official visit begins at the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, to work at "preparing the ground for a full normalisation of relations", an EU statement said.

The Libyan leader was to dine tonight with Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt and meet business leaders and lawmakers before leaving tomorrow.

Gaddafi’s invitation resulted from what the EU called the “remarkable progress” Libya has made in recent months in shedding its rogue nation status, including abandoning its nuclear weapons programme and settling the Pan Am and UTA airliner bombing cases.

The 1988 bombing of the Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, killed 270 people; the French UTA airliner bombing over the Niger desert killed 170 people in 1989.

Gaddafi has said he will seek full membership in the aid and trade programme the EU runs with its Mediterranean neighbours, although his application will have to be approved later by EU governments.

German foreign minister Joschka Fischer welcomed Libya’s rapprochement but noted “obstacles” remained, including his government’s demand for compensation from Libya for victims of a 1986 discotheque bombing in West Berlin.

Two US soldiers and a Turkish woman were killed and 229 people injured in the attack allegedly ordered by Gaddafi.

Mr Fischer said he hoped negotiations already underway would be concluded soon.

“That would be very helpful,” he told reporters at an EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg.

"Chances of getting all barriers out of the way are there.”

Gaddafi was expected to issue a statement jointly with European Commission President Romano Prodi.

The trip – ignored so far by Libya’s state-controlled media – reflects the dramatic shift in relations between Libya and the West.

In the past two months, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi have visited Tripoli.

Last week, US President George Bush lifted most commercial sanctions imposed on Libya in 1986 following the bombing at the La Belle disco, known as a hangout for US troops stationed in the western part of then-divided Berlin.

US officials have said Libya must further improve its human rights record and end support for terrorism before Washington restores diplomatic relations.

In a speech this month, Gaddafi called for the abolition of exceptional courts and draconian laws – including the death penalty for political dissidents – that have long been criticised by human rights groups as repressive.

EU and Belgian officials said the human rights issue would be raised in the context of Libya’s aspiration to join the Euro-Mediterranean partnership.

“Definitely there is a human rights aspect” to that, said Belgian foreign ministry spokesman Patrick Herman.

Amnesty International, which in February made its first visit to Libya in 15 years, released a report today accusing Libya of a “pattern of ongoing human rights violations” and of fostering a “climate of fear” in which most Libyans are afraid to speak out.

The group criticised Libya for criminalising “the peaceful exercise of freedom of expression and association”, detaining dissidents for long periods without access to outsiders and “unfair trials”.

It said: “Torture and ill-treatment (of prisoners) continues to be widely reported, its main use being to extract 'confessions'.”