Mu’ammar Al-Qadhafi, the flamboyant and outspoken leader of Libya, was in Brussels yesterday meeting with EU and Belgian officials, in his first visit to the continent since 1989.
Mu’ammar Al-Qadhafi and European Commission President Romano Prodi in Brussels on April 27. (MAP)
During a speech to the European Commission, Al-Qadhafi said that Libya is leading a global movement towards peace and called on other countries to cease production of weapons of mass destruction, including the U.S. and China, according to news reports.
Al-Qadhafi’s visit follows several months of rapprochement between the pariah North African country and the West. Last year, Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing of an airplane in 1989 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people, and agreed to compensate the victims. U.S. President George W. Bush recently loosened sanctions against the country.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Libya for the first time in March, as did Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and an American Congress delegation in recent months.
Rumors of secret talks between Libyan and Israeli officials abounded last year, while there is also talk of a meeting between Al-Qadhafi and U.S. President George W. Bush this summer.