Gaddafi seeks EU ties

In a further step out of diplomatic isolation, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi will seek admission to the European Union's Euro-Mediterranean partnership when he makes his first visit to EU headquarters today.

The ground-breaking trip - Col. Gaddafi's first to Europe since 1989 - is a further reward for Libya's agreement to pay compensation for the Lockerbie and UTA airliner bombings and for its spectacular abandonment of weapons of mass destruction.

European Commission President Romano Prodi will give Col. Gaddafi a red-carpet welcome and the Libyan leader will meet the entire EU executive as well as Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt.

Commission spokesman Reijo Kemppinen said the visit would "confirm the European horizon of Libya in the context of the Barcelona process" - the EU's name for its trade, aid and culture pact and political dialogue with 11 south and east Mediterranean countries.

But he made clear Tripoli would have to settle demands by Germany and EU candidate Bulgaria arising from its past deeds before it could join the process.

Libya cast off more than a decade of international ostracism last year when it accepted responsibility and began to pay compensation for the mid-air bombings over Scotland and Niger in 1988 and 1989.

It has since renounced nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and cooperated fully with the United States and the UN nuclear watchdog in dismantling its clandestine arms programmes.

But Germany is still demanding compensation for the 1986 bombing of a Berlin nightclub frequented by US soldiers.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer told reporters in Luxembourg negotiations with Tripoli were under way and "without going overboard in optimism, I think the chances are good" for a settlement.

Sofia wants the release of six Bulgarian medics detained in Libya since 1999 on charges of deliberately infecting 426 children with HIV, the virus that causes Aids.

A Libyan court verdict on them is due on May 6, just as Euro-Mediterranean foreign ministers will be meeting in Dublin. EU members need to approve Libya's membership unanimously.

Mr Kemppinen said the Commission would tell Col. Gaddafi that the bombing of the La Belle discotheque and the Bulgarian medics' case "need to be solved before full entry into the Barcelona process can take place".

Claiming credit for Mr Prodi in Libya's recent rapprochement with the West, Mr Kemppinen recalled that the former Italian prime minister had kept ties alive when it was less fashionable.

"As you all know, he has been one of the few who has maintained regular contacts with the leader of Libya throughout these years, precisely to work discreetly, behind the scenes," the spokesman said.

Mr Prodi caused an uproar in the EU in 2001 after he appeared to casually invite Mr Gaddafi to Brussels during a Christmas telephone call. Britain and France blocked the initiative.

In Tripoli, Libyan officials said Col. Gaddafi's trip was part of a rapid normalisation of ties with the West and would underline the country's return to the community of nations.

They also expected that Western support would dash any hope dissidents inside Libya or abroad may still have of challenging Col. Gaddafi's 34-year rule.