The United States spoke highly of its improved relations with Libya on Friday when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice kicked off her landmark visit to Tripoli.
"The secretary's trip to Libya signifies a new chapter in our bilateral relations," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters.
"It changed based on the country's decision to give up its weapons of mass destruction and its capabilities for producing them. Those are important and significant changes," she said.
"By improving our relations with Libya, we will enable expansion of bilateral cooperation in a number of areas, including education and culture, commerce, science and technology, and most certainly security and human rights."
The United States had no diplomatic relations with Libya from 1980 until after the latter pledged to abandon weapons of mass destruction programs, stop exporting terrorism and pay compensation to the families of victims of two of the three attacks.
Since renouncing terrorism and weapons of mass destruction in 2003, Libya is no longer on the State Department's list of "state sponsors of terrorism."
It has been noticed that while the White House sees "new chapter" in U.S.-Liyba relations, Libya is not necessarily agreeing to the optimistic comment.
On the eve of Rice's arrival to Tripoli, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi described the Libya-U.S relations as no longer enemies but are not quite friends. "It is neither friendship nor enmity," he said, in remarks carried live on Libyan state television early this week.
Source: Xinhua
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