By Sue Pleming
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State CondoleezzaRice met Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi -- once reviled as a"mad dog" by a U.S. president -- on Friday on a historic visitwhich she said proved that Washington had no permanent enemies.
Rice is making the first trip by a U.S. secretary of stateto the North African country in 55 years, a move intended toend decades of enmity and violence five years after Libya gaveup its weapons of mass destruction program.
"This trip is acknowledging how far the U.S.-Libyanrelationship has come, but it is the beginning and not the endof the story," Rice said on arrival in Tripoli.
For years, Washington considered Gaddafi a major supporterof terrorism and one of its most prominent enemies.
Incidents such as the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103over Scotland, for which a Libyan agent was convicted, and aU.S. air raid on Tripoli and Benghazi in 1986 sent tensionssoaring.
But in recent years Gaddafi has abandoned his anti-Westernrhetoric and sought to bring Libya back into the internationalmainstream.
On Friday, Gaddafi welcomed Rice in an incense-perfumedroom in his compound. They were later due to take Iftar, thetraditional meal breaking the fast during the Islamic holymonth of Ramadan.
Gaddafi, wearing a white robe with an Africa-embossed scarfand a green brooch shaped like the continent, did not shakehands with Rice but put his right hand over his heart.
He then shook hands with Rice's entourage and motioned herto sit down. Rice thanked him for his hospitality.
The large compound where they met includes his former home,which has been kept in ruins since it was bombed by U.S. jetsin 1986. The U.S. strike, which killed about 40 people,including a daughter of Gaddafi, marked one of the lowestpoints in the decades Libya spent being seen as an outlawstate.
There was no indication that Rice's staff saw the ruins,which Libyan officials usually make a point of showing tovisiting dignitaries.
"This demonstrates that the U.S. doesn't have permanentenemies," Rice earlier told reporters in Tripoli.
"It demonstrates that when countries are prepared to makestrategic changes in direction, the United States is preparedto respond. Quite frankly I never thought I would be visitingLibya and so it is quite something," she said.
John Foster Dulles was the last U.S. Secretary of Statediplomat to visit Tripoli -- in May 1953, before Rice was born.
Rice met Libya's Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel-RahmanShalgam before meeting Gaddafi. They discussed cooperation invarious fields, especially in oil and in education, theofficial Libyan Jana news agency reported.
Rice held back from visiting Libya until a compensationpackage was signed last month to cover legal claims involvingvictims of U.S. and Libyan bombings.
Gaddafi, once called "the mad dog of the Middle East" byU.S. President Ronald Reagan, has in the past expressedadmiration for Rice.
"I support my darling black African woman," he said in aninterview with Al Jazeera TV station last year. "I admire andam very proud of the way she leans back and gives orders to theArab leaders."
HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES
Washington is negotiating a "military memorandum ofunderstanding" with Libya, which cooperates in fightingterrorism and has helped stem the flow of insurgents into Iraq,the State Department said, without giving details.
Rice is expected to raise some human rights issues and topush Gaddafi on the compensation deal signed on August 14.
Libya finalized the legal arrangements on Wednesday forsetting up a fund into which money will be paid. But one seniorU.S. official said it would take "more than days" beforepayments could be made to both sides.
U.S. victims covered include those who died in the Pan Ambombing, which killed 270 people, and the 1986 Libyan attack ona Berlin disco that killed three people and wounded 229. Italso compensates victims of the 1986 U.S. air raid.
Rice has come under some domestic criticism for making thetrip before the compensation money was paid out. Rights groupsare critical because some cases, such as that of ailingpolitical dissident Fathi el-Jahmi, have not been resolved.
Rice said she would discuss his plight with Gaddafi.
