French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli on Wednesday evening, said reports from the Libyan capital.
Sarkozy's visit came less than 24 hours after Libya released five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor under France's mediation. The six medics were sentenced to death after being convicted of infecting hundreds of Libyan children with the HIV virus.
Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel-Rahman Shalgham told reporters that the two leaders signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation on a nuclear reactor, which will be used to provide drinking water from desalinated sea water.
The two countries also signed an agreement about cooperation on a military-industrial partnership, in addition to a number of other deals on cultural, economic and scientific cooperation, according to the foreign minister.
The French president called his visit to Tripoli, the first of a European leader since the release of the medics, a "political trip" to help Libya reintegrate into the international community after decades of isolation.
France played an important role in securing the release of the six medics, which paved the way for Sarkozy's visit.
The six medics had been jailed in Libya since 1999 and were sentenced to death earlier this month for deliberately causing an HIV outbreak at a Benghazi hospital and infecting 426 children with the virus.
The six were given a reprieve last week under a deal between Libya and the European Union and they left Libya boarding a French plane accompanied by Sarkozy's wife Cecilia.
Sarkozy's visit to Libya is part of his African tour that will also take him to Senegal and Gabon, where he is expected to sign a number of cooperation agreements with the two countries in the economic, scientific, cultural and educational spheres.
Source: Xinhua
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