20000124

EU shelves Gaddafi's invitation

BRUSSELS: The European Union patched up an embarrassing row over the conduct of foreign policy at the weekend by shelving an invitation to the controversial Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

European Commission President Romano Prodi made the invitation during a telephone call he received from Gaddafi on December 23. It was issued without consulting EU member governments, most of whom were opposed.

Libya was under sanctions for most of the 1990s as a sponsor of international terrorism and Gaddafi is suspected by many in the West of ordering the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, with the loss of 270 lives.

A statement issued by the European Commission on Saturday night said Prodi had called Gaddafi on Friday and ascertained, following an official reply the next day, that Libya was not ready to fully accept EU conditions for cooperation.

The exchange "made clear that the conditions are not there for a prompt an constructive visit", and EU member governments had been duly so informed on Saturday, the statement said.

It left open the question of when a visit by Gaddafi might become appropriate but effectively shelved it indefinitely.

The cancellation was expected to relieve strains between Prodi and the EU's top two foreign policy executives, Javier Solana and Chris Patten, both of whom felt Prodi's invitation was badly handled, premature and embarrassing.

The statement said that Prodi, "in close contact with" Patten and Solana, held two telephone conversations with Gaddafi on Friday about a possible visit, which the Libyan leader had baldly announced in December as a done deal.

It said Prodi made clear that in order for a visit to Brussels to take place, Libya would first have to formally confirm full acceptance of the "Barcelona Declaration".

Libyan authorities replied that, while deeply interested in improving ties with the EU, they could make no full commitment at present to acceptance of the document, which contains the democratic principles of Euro-Mediterranean cooperation.

In fact, Libya made clear three weeks ago it would only join the process of cooperation between 27 European and Mediterranean rim countries if Israel and the Palestinian Authority were excluded from it - a condition immediately ruled out by Patten's spokesman as "totally unacceptable".

RAPPROCHEMENT AT ARMS LENGTH

EU member states last year lifted economic sanctions against Libya and restored diplomatic ties broken off by the Lockerbie bombing, after Gaddafi ended eight years of stalling and handed over two Libyan suspects in the case.

Their trial is due to begin in May at a special Scottish court in The Netherlands, and legal sources do not exclude the possibility that witnesses could implicate Gaddafi himself.

While Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema in December became the first Western leader to end a decade of frozen ties with a visit to Libya, a former Italian colony, most Western capitals prefer rapprochement to proceed with extreme caution.

Prodi's invitation was made to appear even more inopportune two weeks ago when Britain announced it had intercepted a disguised shipment of SCUD ballistic missile parts on its way to Libya via Malta and Gatwick Airport in England.

But Prodi at the time disdained the opportunity to back off, insisting that he did not need to have "anyone's permission" to invite a leader to visit him in Brussels.-Reuters