Gadhafi Touts Peace In Europe

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, once considered one of the world's most dangerous men, came to Europe for the first time in 15 years Tuesday offering an olive branch and business deals — along with a veiled threat of a return to violence if provoked by "evil" from the West.

The one-time pariah turned peace advocate swept through the normally staid headquarters of the European Union like a movie star in brown Bedouin robes, flanked by his trademark female bodyguards in blue camouflage.

He gave a clenched fist salute to about 200 supporters outside the building while a smattering of protesters barricaded across the street shouted "Gadhafi murderer!"

Inside, as Gadhafi and his host, European Commission President Romano Prodi, posed for photographers, a man pretending to be a security guard slipped forward and tried to hand Gadhafi a letter before being hustled away, shouting as the paper went flying overhead.

Gadhafi, stone-faced, ignored the bedlam and continued shaking hands with a grinning Prodi.

Upstairs in his office, Prodi presented Gadhafi with a boxed set of euro coins and a "pen to sign our friendship." When Gadhafi jokingly asked what the coins were worth, Prodi responded: "Only 20 euros. It's not a big value."

After three hours of talks, Prodi declared himself "very happy" about the historic visit, which he said he worked five years to arrange. But even Prodi began fidgeting uncomfortably as Gadhafi rambled on for half an hour to hundreds of journalists gathered for their only scheduled chance to hear him speak during the two-day visit.

"It goes without saying this is a very historic meeting," Gadhafi began, speaking through a translator as three of his female bodyguards stood at attention behind him.

Gadhafi declared his readiness to work with the West peacefully after years of championing armed struggle against it.

"Libya did its duty when duty had to be done by arms," he said. That included firing missiles at U.S. fighter aircraft in the 1980s and setting up training camps for "freedom fighters" from around the developing world, for which he said Libya was "unjustly" accused of a "kind of terrorism."

Now that Libya has given up its weapons programs, it has become "an example to be followed," he asserted, calling on countries "from China to America" to do the same.

"I would like to seize the opportunity today and declare before you ... that Libya is determined and committed to play a leading role in achieving world peace," he said.

"The time has now come to reap the fruits of this armed struggle, namely peace, stability, development. Now we are facing different or new challenges which are common enemies to all of us."

Noting Libya's huge gas and oil reserves, he said European and U.S. companies were needed "to update and modernize the wells ... and to develop them. ...

"This requires peace," he said, hinting at a possible motivation for his change of heart.

He promised to cooperate on curbing illegal immigration — a crucial issue across the EU.

Yet he concluded by warning that an upsurge in violence across the Mideast could undo Libya's conversion, apparently referring to the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"I hope we shall not be prompted or obliged by any evil to go back or look backward," he said.

"Hopefully nothing would force us to go back to the days when we use our cars and explosive belts, to put explosive belts around ourselves or on our women so we will not be searched and harassed in our bedrooms and in our homes as is happening in Iraq and Palestine.

"The victims are women and children, the battlefield in the kitchen and the bedroom. We don't want to be forced to go back to the days when we had do that," he said. "We have a true opportunity for peace. We say to America and declare also to Europe, we say it confidently and loudly, we should not miss this opportunity."

Neither Gadhafi nor Prodi took questions afterward.

In introductory remarks, Prodi said he welcomed Gadhafi's "bold moves" in renouncing weapons of mass destruction and said he was committed to bringing Libya into the EU's regional aid and trade program "as soon as possible."

"We need to work together on peace, stability, migration, security, economic reform and cultural cooperation," Prodi said. "This is the essence of our new neighborhood policy, within which Libya must find its place."

The visit was intended to help pave the way for normalization of relations between the EU and Libya, following recent visits to Tripoli by Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The United States last week lifted most of its commercial sanctions on Libya but trade restrictions with Europe remain, including an arms embargo.

Libya's recent settling of the Pan Am and UTA airliner bombing cases contributed to the recent rapprochement. 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.

But Germany is negotiating for compensation from Libya for victims of a 1986 bombing at a West Berlin disco known as a hangout for American troops. Two U.S. soldiers and a Turkish woman were killed and 229 people injured in the attack allegedly ordered by Gadhafi.

Bulgaria also wants the release of six Bulgarian medics detained in Tripoli since 1999 on charges that they deliberately infected hundreds of children with the AIDS virus.

Prodi said he raised both issues with Gadhafi and was "fully confident that we will see in the next few weeks satisfactory solutions."

Amnesty International, which in February made its first visit to Libya in 15 years, released a report Tuesday 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.

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

Officials said human rights would be raised in the context of Libya's aspiration to join the Euro-Mediterranean partnership, which must be approved by EU governments.

Gadhafi was also meeting with Belgian political and business leaders before leaving Wednesday. A black Bedouin prayer tent was erected for him outside a government-owned chateau on the leafy outskirts of Brussels.

His last trip to Europe was in 1989, when he delivered a disjointed harangue against Jews and the U.S. dollar at a summit of nonaligned nations in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.