US Assistant Secretary of State William Burns arrived in Libya on Tuesday for talks with Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, becoming the highest-level American official to visit Libya since 1980.
Burns arrived on the previously unannounced visit from Egypt, where he met with President Hosni Mubarak and then with EU, Russian and UN officials to discuss the Israel-Palestinian situation.
Relations between Libya and the West have warmed recently as Qaddafi has made extraordinary steps to shed his country's reputation as a rogue nation.
The US administration has responded to Qaddafi's moves by lifting a 23-year-old ban on Americans using their passports to travel to Libya and permitting American companies to hold talks with Libyans about future economic transactions.
A number of US lawmakers have come to Libya in the last two months in visits seen as preliminary steps to renewing ties between the countries.
"There are still a number of issues between the United States and Libya that we need to work on, that we need to try to clear up," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington. "The questions of terrorism, the questions of Libya's support for groups around Africa, the questions of human rights and other things that we need to take up with the Libyans."
However, Boucher said "this overall process is based on the very significant and dramatic steps that Libya has taken in deciding to get rid of its weapons of mass destruction."
In December, Qaddafi agreed to dismantle Libya's nuclear program under US, British and UN supervision, in return for a restoration of diplomatic ties with Washington. Libya also accepted responsibility last year for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, prompting the UN Security Council to lift its sanctions.
Burns is the highest-level US official to meet with Qaddafi since then-Deputy Ambassador William Eagleton called on the Libyan leader in 1980 to formalize a suspension of diplomatic relations.
In other high-ranking visits, British Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected in Libya on Thursday, Qaddafi's son said.
Seif el-Islam Qaddafi told reporters in Doha, Qatar, on Monday that Blair and his father would discuss Libya's drive to get US sanctions lifted and the prospects of military cooperation between Libya and Britain and America.
In London, Blair's office declined to comment on reports of a visit to Libya, saying the prime minister's travel plans are kept secret for security reasons.
Britain resumed diplomatic relations with Libya in 1999, 15 years after it broke ties when London police constable Yvonne Fletcher was killed by gunfire from the Libyan Embassy.
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