PARIS: Muammar Qadhafi has decided to go knocking at Europe’s door, and has chosen to do so in style with the sending to Paris on Monday of a VIP delegation headed by his own son, Saif El Islam Qadhafi.

The younger Qadhafi, one of Col Muammar Qadhafi’s four sons, arrived at Orly Airport on Monday afternoon in an Airbus A320 aircraft bearing the colours of Libyan Arab Airlines, the first time in ten years that one the national airline’s aircraft has been allowed to touch down on French soil.

On Thursday, Qadhafi will inaugurate regular service between Paris and Tripoli, which will see every Thursday a weekly flight Libyan Arab Airlines flight arrive at Orly with a return trip to Tripoli programmed the same day.

In the words of Christian Graeff, the former French ambassador to Libya who is also one of the principal architects of the resumption of Franco-Libyan relations in general and of the visit to Paris of Saif El Islam Qadhafi in particular, “Mr Qadhafi and his delegation, which includes a traditional bedouin dance group, have come to Paris under the theme of the Bedouin universe and the silence of the desert, a universe of profound spirituality that has had a tendency of disturbing our industrial society.”

Besides inaugurating Libyan Arab Airlines’ regular service to Tripoli, the younger Qadhafi has also come to Paris to inaugurate a major exhibition of his painted work which is being housed at the prestigious Institut du Monde Arabe, the landmark architectural structure by Jean Nouvel located on the banks of the Seine River.

The exhibition, which is to last through April 24, has been titled “The Desert is Not Silent,” a name that describes perfectly one of the major themes under which the younger Qadhafi’s visit to France is being undertaken.

During his weeklong stay here, Saif El Islam Qadhafi will also be meeting with French business leaders, especially representatives of the country’s principal oil conglomerate, Total Fina Elf, which is one of several companies to sponsor the Institut du Monde Arab exhibition of Qadhafi’s paintings.

The visit is designed not only to allow Libya to normalize its relations with France, but also to permit it to be able to put its foot in the doorway of the EU, a first step that Col Muammar Qadhafi hopes will eventually allow him to establish regular trading and diplomatic links with all of Europe, and eventually the industrialized world.

Many of the 25 celebrities accompanying Qadhafi are business and governmental leaders charged with facilitating the access to the Libyan market of the French and European business community.

The younger Qadhafi will also be meeting with representatives of several NGOs, notably in his capacity as president of the International Qadhafi Foundation. Moreover, he addressed the foreign press on Wednesday at the Maison de Radio France, where he detailed his “goodwill” work on behalf of the foundation.

If Paris was chosen as the first capital for the resumption of traffic to Europe, it was in large part because of the role played by France in lobbying for lifting of the post-Lockerbie embargo. Indeed, President Jacques Chirac is known to have met briefly with Col Qadhafi during the Africa-European Union summit held in April 2000 in Cairo with the encouragement of France.

According to the same French sources, it is also known that Colonel Qadhafi would like for French authorities to use their good relations with President George W Bush to encourage the US to definitively lift economic sanctions decreed against Tripoli in January 1986, and which Washington decided last month to extend another year.