Landmark Libya Trip For U.S. Pols

Representative Tom Lantos arrived in Tripoli on Saturday, marking the first visit by a member of Congress to Libya in more than 30 years.

The Californian Democrat told reporters that the U.S. government and Congress now sought a strong working relationship with Libya, which America has long considered a rogue state.

Libya impressed Washington last month by agreeing to abandon the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and to open its facilities to surprise inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Earlier last year, Libya accepted responsibility for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing of an American airliner and agreed to pay compensation to relatives of the 270 victims. In return, the U.N. Security Council lifted sanctions against Libya.

Lantos, who was accompanied by assistants, said he planned to report to Washington next week on his short visit. Lantos is the senior Democrat on the House International Relations Committee.

On Sunday, six other Republican and Democratic members of Congress are scheduled to arrive. The U.S. lawmakers are expected to meet Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and visit Libya's nuclear sites.

The visits are believed to be the first by elected U.S. officials to the North African country since Gadhafi seized power in 1969, and they come at a time when new reports are casting light on the extent of Libya's nuclear programs.

Saturday's Washington Post reports that Libya's quest for atomic weapons was aided by a sophisticated nuclear black market.

Diplomats and experts familiar with the probe into the nation's weapons program told the newspaper that weapons designs, real-time technical advice and thousands of sensitive parts - some manufactured in secret factories – came from Libya's black market trading.

One expert interviewed by the Post said the black market exceeds anything seen before, and referred to it as an "international supermarket" for weapons parts. Western intelligence agencies did not detect the operation until recent months, the Post reports. The same operation is also believed to have aided Iran.

Investigators believe this may be a problematic milestone in nuclear proliferation - factories built expressly to manufacture nuclear components for the black market, the Post says.

Sources told the Post that U.S. and IAEA officials are investigating one possible manufacturing site in Malaysia, with the help of that country's government. The site has been visited by U.S. officials in the past two weeks, the sources said.