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's trip, the first by a U.S. secretary of state to theNorth African country in 55 years, is intended to end decadesof enmity, five years after Libya gave up its weapons of massdestruction programme.
"I think we are off to a good start. It is only a start butafter many, many years, I think it is a very good thing thatthe United States and Libya are establishing a way forward,"Rice told a news conference after talks and dinner with Gaddafiat a compound bombed by U.S. warplanes in 1986.
She said she hoped there would be a new U.S. ambassador inLibya "soon."
"Rice's visit is proof that Libya has changed, America haschanged and the world has changed. There is dialogue,understanding and entente between the two countries now," saidLibyan Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam.
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 theU.S. air raids on Tripoli and Benghazi in 1986 sent tensionssoaring.
But in recent years Gaddafi has cooled his anti-Westernrhetoric and sought to bring Libya back into the internationalmainstream.
U.S. officials said Rice's talks with Gaddafi had beenwide-ranging and he gave her a mandolin as a gift. The twodiscussed Sudan's Darfur conflict, the Middle East, andterrorism, among other issues.
On Friday, he welcomed Rice in an incense-perfumed room inhis compound and they later took Iftar, the traditional mealbreaking the fast during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
RUINED COMPOUND
Gaddafi, wearing a white robe and a green brooch in theshape of Africa, did not shake hands with Rice but put hisright hand over his heart. By Muslim tradition, men shouldavoid contact with females during the fasting time.
The compound where they met includes his former home, whichhas been kept in ruins since it was bombed by U.S. jets in1986. The U.S. strike, which killed about 40 people includingan adopted daughter of Gaddafi, marked one of the lowest pointsin the decades of enmity between the two nations.
"This demonstrates that the U.S. doesn't have permanentenemies," Rice said of her visit.
"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 State tovisit Tripoli -- in May 1953, before Rice was born.
Before her meeting with Gaddafi, Rice and Shalgam discussedcooperation in various fields, especially in oil and ineducation, Libya's official Jana news agency reported.
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 told AlJazeera TV station last year. "I admire and am very proud ofthe way she leans back and gives orders to the Arab leaders."
HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES
Washington is negotiating a "military memorandum ofunderstanding" with Libya but plans to sign a cultural andeducational agreement on Friday were put off after Libya askedfor changes to some of the language, a U.S. official said.
Rice held back from visiting Libya until a compensationpackage was signed last month to cover legal claims involvingvictims of U.S. and Libyan bombings.
Libya finalised 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.
Appearing with Rice at a joint news conference, Shalgamsaid: "We do not need anybody to come and put pressure on us orto give us lectures on how we should behave."
He added that Jahmi had not suffered injustice and was not"under any kind of pressure."
Rice told the news conference she had raised human rightscases in her talks in Libya. She did not name the individualsshe had discussed, but she was responding to a question aboutwhether she had raised cases including that of Jahmi.
After spending eight hours in Libya -- three hours longerthan planned -- Rice flew on to Tunisia as part of a four-dayNorth Africa trip that includes stops in Algeria and Morocco.
