The son of Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi proposed a new plan for general reforms in which he said his country will move away from the Middle East and reduce spending on the military. "Libya has decided to separate from the so-called Middle East," Seif al-Islam Gadhafi said at the opening session of a Tripoli conference for business leaders from Western countries. Gadhafi said he is proposing a new reform plan that will include major cuts in military expenditure. "There is no need anymore to continue spending on the military field," he said. "Instead, we will direct such spending to development."
The conference opened a day after the European Union ended 12 years of sanctions against Libya and eased an arms embargo to reward the North African country for giving up efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction. Gadhafi said the decision heralded "a new era for the Libyan-Western relationship." |