U.S. delegation talks with Gadhafi

TRIPOLI, Libya -- A U.S. Congressional delegation met with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and visited a nuclear site Monday as they wrapped up a landmark trip both sides hoped would improve relations between the two countries.\n"We discussed the hope that we will achieve normal relations soon," delegation leader, Republican Rep. Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania, said after the meeting.\nWeldon, who met for 30 minutes with Gadhafi after a two-hour meeting between the Libyan leader and the entire delegation, said the discussions were "very positive."\n"The leader is doing the right thing," he said.\nDemocratic Rep. Solomon Ortiz of Texas said Gadhafi made "no new pledges" during the meeting but the delegation "complimented him for keeping up his program."\nThe delegation's visit comes amid improving U.S.-Libyan relations after decades of rancor.\nGadhafi said in an Italian newspaper interview published Monday that American and Libyan intelligence agencies may have worked together in the fight against terrorism.\n"There are groups that are working against all of us," Gadhafi told Rome's La Repubblica daily newspaper. "It could be that there has been cooperation between secret services, in particular regarding Libyan citizens who fought in Afghanistan."\nRep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican, said Gadhafi "expressed his regret that a quarter-century has passed of isolation between our countries."\n"It's just the first step," Issa said of the meeting.\nBefore meeting with Gadhafi, the delegation donned white smocks and shoe coverings to tour a nuclear reactor just east of Tripoli that is used for scientific research. U.S. and British experts are preparing to dismantle other nuclear sites used in Libya's nuclear weapons programs, which Gadhafi recently renounced.\nThe lawmakers also toured the rubble of Gadhafi's house, which was bombed by the United States in 1986. The attacks killed 37 people, including Gadhafi's adopted daughter, in retaliation for the bombing of a German disco that killed a U.S. soldier and a Turkish woman.\nThe United States imposed sanctions that year, accusing Libya of supporting terrorist groups. Ten years later, America said it would penalize the U.S. partners of European companies that did significant business in Libya and Iran.\nIn recent years, Gadhafi tried to end his international isolation, and has made a startling turnaround in the past year. He admitted his country's involvement in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, and agreed to pay $2.7 billion to the victims' families.\nHe also admitted he had tried to develop weapons of mass destruction and invited U.N., American and British inspectors to inspect his weapons programs and dismantle them.\n"I think clearly that Gadhafi is for real in that he has made this switch," Issa told The Associated Press. "He has been a person of abrupt changes throughout his career."\nAfter Libya admitted in September its involvement in the Lockerbie bombing, the U.N. Security Council voted to lift its sanctions, but the United States was proceeding more cautiously. Still, the U.S. lawmakers indicated that barring any changes of heart, diplomatic ties could soon be restored.\nLibya is also counting on a restoration of economic ties. The sanctions have cost Libya more than $30 billion in lost business. Investment is especially needed for an oil industry that once made the North African country of about 5 million people a regional power.\nThe delegation's arrival came on the heels of that of another American lawmaker. Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., landed Saturday in the first visit by an elected U.S. official in 38 years. His office in Washington said he, too, met with the Libyan leader, although it released no details of the meeting.\nThe U.S. Navy jet that carried the Weldon-led delegation to Tripoli on Sunday was the first U.S. military aircraft to land in Libya in Gadhafi's 35-year tenure as the country's leader.\nOn Sunday, the delegation met with Libya's prime minister, foreign minister and a delegation from the People's Congress -- the equivalent of a parliament. They also walked through a section of Tripoli and visited a farm owned by Gadhafi's son, Seif el-Islam, who is seen as a possible successor to his father.