U.S. hopes Libya trip will turn around ties

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Condoleezza Rice's visit to Libya this week, the first by a U.S. secretary of state in half a century, is a bold signal of better ties but it will take time to erase decades of mistrust and a legacy of violence.

Relations have improved since Libya announced in 2003 it would give up its weapons of mass destruction, but a series of bombing attacks and innate suspicion of the former pariah state marred a dramatic turnaround.

"The history of our reversal in relations with Libya is that things have taken much longer than anyone would have thought," said Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

The visit was announced on Tuesday by State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, who said: "It certainly does mark a new chapter in U.S.-Libya relations."

Rice, who is expected to meet Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on her September 4-7 trip, also will visit Maghreb nations Tunisia,

Rice's brief visit is the first by a U.S. secretary of state since May 1953 by John Foster Dulles. She also plans to go to Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco before returning to Washington on Sunday.

The Tripoli trip follows a deal signed on August 14 between Libya and the United States to settle claims on both sides for bombings.

U.S. victims include those who died in the 1988 airliner bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people and for which Libya has taken responsibility, and the 1986 attack on a Berlin disco that killed three people and wounded 229.

It also compensates Libyans killed in 1986 when U.S. planes bombed Tripoli and Benghazi. Forty people died.

"I think symbolically this trip is very important because it sends a signal that the last of the remaining political hurdles are being cleared away," said David Hamod of the National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce.

"But building a strong business and cultural friendship takes time and for decades, we have been told that the other is a pariah state," he added.

After Libya gave up its weapons of mass destruction, it expected an immediate thaw and Washington was optimistic of reaping lucrative oil deals.

The United States dropped many sanctions, removed Libya from a terrorism blacklist and restored diplomatic links in 2006, but progress in forging closer ties stalled.

ROADBLOCKS

The lingering mistrust is evident by bureaucratic roadblocks on both sides in issuing visas and setting up fully-functioning embassies -- even though Rice announced in 2006 that full diplomatic ties had been restored.