27 January 2004	Tuesday	04 Zilhaj 1424

TRIPOLI, Jan 26: US Congressmen met Libyan leader Moamer Qadhafi here on Monday pledging to "forget the past" on a landmark mission aimed at paving the way for renewed diplomatic relations after decades of hostility.

"Qadhafi was open," Republican Representative and delegation leader Curt Weldon said through an interpreter. "We talked of weapons of mass destruction." His Democrat colleague Solomon Ortiz described as "warm" the talks with Qadhafi in the maverick Libyan leader's tent erected outside his former home in Tripoli that was destroyed by a US bombing raid 18 years ago.

"We want to forget the past; on this new day we want to turn a new page." Republican Mark Souder said the congressmen had conveyed their r egrets for the attack and condolences for the death of Qadhafi's adopted daughter in the raid which also killed 36 other people.

The mission, the first of its kind since before Qadhafi came into power in 1969, reflects a dramatic shift in US policy towards Libya after Tripoli last month renounced efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction.

Diplomatic ties were severed in 1981 and the United States imposed an embargo in 1986 that remains in place although the United Nations lifted sanctions last year after Tripoli agreed to a compensation deal over the Lockerbie plane bombing.

Libyan foreign ministry spokesman Hassuna al-Shawsh said the discussions with the delegation, which left Tripoli later Monday, had covered "ways to strengthen ties and establish equal relations between the two countries."

The congressional delegation touched down in Tripoli aboard a US military aircraft on Sunday, a day after the arrival of Tom Lantos, the senior Democrat on the House international relations committee.

Lantos and the other visiting congressmen had separate meetings with members of the small American community residing in Libya, as the US flag flew over the building.

Lantos, who also met Qadhafi on Monday, predicted that relations would be normal and embassies reopen in the two countries by next year. Qadhafi's surprise weapons announcement after nine months of secret talks with British and US intelligence and his agreement to the compensation deal for the 1988 airliner crash over Lockerbie, Scotland, has seen the West begin opening its arms to what it used to brand a "rogue" state.

Inspectors from the United States, Britain and the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, have already begun working in Libya to oversee the dismantling of the country's programmes t o develop weapons of mass destruction.

Libyan Prime Minister Shoukri Ghanem said after meeting the Americans on Sunday that he expected the return of US oil firms to Libya "within a year".-AFP