U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns arrived in Libya on Tuesday for talks with Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi, becoming the highest-level American official to visit this country since 1980. Burns' previously unannounced visit follows a recent warming of relations between Libya and the West as Gadhafi made extraordinary steps to shed his country's reputation as a rogue nation. "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."
Burns arrived in Libya from Egypt, where he met with President Hosni Mubarak and then with European Union, Russian and U.N. officials to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian situation. He is the highest-level U.S. official to meet with Gadhafi 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, Gadhafi's son said. Seif el-Islam Gadhafi told reporters in Doha, Qatar, on Monday that Blair and his father would discuss Libya's drive to get U.S. sanctions lifted and the prospects of military cooperation with Britain and the United States. 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.
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