Italy and Libya's deal on colonial compensation "sets the past to rest," Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Monday, according to Italian News Agency ANSA.
Berlusconi noted that he and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi signed the 5 billion-dollar deal in Benghazi on Saturday "in front of almost 1,000 descendants of the victims of colonization."
The premier said the "bloody" pre-WWI colonization had left "a wound" in Libya.
Replying to claims that the deal is too costly, Berlusconi told Italian press that critics "aren't considering the advantages that will come to our firms."
He noted, among other things, that the friendship accord gives Italy easier access to Libyan gas which is "among the best in the world."
Gaddafi said earlier on Monday that Italy would have ''priority over oil and gas and other forms of investment''.
In a speech marking the 39th anniversary of the Libyan revolution, he said the deal sets a precedent for other former colonial states to seek compensation.
Under the deal, Italy will pay its former colony 200 million dollars over 25 years to fund various projects including the Italian construction of a coastal highway linking Libya with Egypt and Tunisia.
Rome will also clear Libya of landmines left from the colonial period.
Berlusconi said the deal ended "40 years of misunderstanding."
Italy occupied Libya in 1911 and Libya became a colony in the 1930s.
Italy is Libya's biggest trading partner and 25 percent of Italian oil imports come from Libya.
Source:Xinhua
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