TRIPOLI: In the walled old quarter of Libya’s capital, the collapsed remains of a house served as a refuse dump and rag pickers’ paradise. Street urchins scampered among the ruins on Friday picking through plastic bags and pulling out shirts and tattered blankets. One boy was lucky and found a pair of repairable jeans. An old man intently inspected a limp cabbage.

It was a distressing dawn scene that residents in the neighbourhood hope will soon change. Three decades of jerky economic experiments at home and tensions abroad are about to give way to a new era in Libya, according to government officials.

Col Moammar Qadhafi, Libya’s leader since 1969, who has portrayed himself alternately as a pan-Arab revolutionary and a pan-African liberator, has announced an opening to the West. He has sought to end years of confrontation with the United States by giving up programmes to develop weapons of mass destruction. In return, Libya expects the United States to end its isolation so that it can enjoy the benefits of trade and economic development, especially within its oil industry.

In the old city, Libyans are both hopeful and sceptical. The doubts stem from the many twists and turns under Qadhafi’s rule and from concerns about US intentions. “We need something different. We have possibilities. No one should be living out of garbage here. We have oil. There is no reason to be poor forever,” said Kareem Fakeeh, who works as a deliveryman, pushing produce through town on a wheelbarrow. “Of course, we have had many promises,” he continued, his voice softening. “We have been told many things.”

In Washington, administration officials attributed the offer to political heat radiating through the Middle East from the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq and the toppling of president Saddam Hussein. In Tripoli, government officials say that Qadhafi’s proposal is part of an evolution that began before the war. “It’s a sign of our maturity,” said Giuma Abulkher, the foreign liaison director for the government information office. “We don’t need these programmes. We have no bad intentions. We have looked around and calculated a new reality.”

He said the Libyan and US governments have mutual interests: the United States desires greater and varied sources of oil and Libya wants to cement relations with the West. Libya is no longer interested in getting involved in regional conflicts or supporting “liberation movements”, including terrorist groups. —Dawn/The LAT-WP News Service (c) The Washington Post.