US lawmakers to travel to Libya

A bipartisan group of US lawmakers yesterday said they were preparing to travel to Libya to meet with President Muammar Gaddafi in the first such official visit since Mr Gaddafi seized power in 1969.

Six members of the US House of Representatives were to leave this weekend on the trip that comes after Tripoli volunteered last month to abandon its weapons of mass destruction programmes in a bid to shed its status as a pariah state.

"Colonel Gaddafi has taken a significant step in renouncing his weapons of mass destruction program," said US Rep. Curt Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican leading the trip.

"During our face-to-face meeting we will encourage him to completely comply with international inspectors. At the same time we will reassure him that once Libya lives up to its end of the bargain, we can finally begin the process of normalising our relationship," Mr Weldon said.

The weeklong trip also was to include stops in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr Weldon's spokesman said.

Accompanying Weldon will be US Democratic Representatives. Solomon Ortiz of Texas, Steve Israel of New York, and Rodney Alexander of Louisiana, and Republicans Candice Miller of Michigan and Mark Souder of Indiana.

Inspectors from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency along with US and British weapons inspectors were in Tripoli to begin dismantling Libya's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons capabilities.

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, US President George W. Bush cited Libya as an example of how US policy has helped make the world safer.