|
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) - British Prime Minister leader Tony Blair launched his farewell tour of Africa in Libya on Tuesday, seeking to seal the rehabilitation of relations with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and build support for action on Darfur and climate change.
Blair's discreet, then public, talks to bring Gadhafi into the international fold in 2004 were initially met with discomfort in Britain, amid memories of the Lockerbie air disaster, when Libyan agents brought down a Pan Am airliner over Scotland in 1988, killing 270. The British leader and his wife planned to have dinner with Gadhafi on Tuesday in the town of Sirte on the Mediterranean coast.
Libyan officials have said they also expect Blair to announce the return of the British Petroleum oil company to Libya, heralding new economic ties with Gadhafi's regime.
|