PARIS, Dec 9: Libyan leader Moamer Qadhafi arrives in Paris on Monday for a high-profile visit set to usher in multi-billion-euro nuclear and aviation contracts, even as critics lashed President Nicolas Sarkozy for welcoming Mr Qadhafi.

Staying in a heated Bedouin tent pitched near the Elysee presidential palace, Qadhafi is expected during the five-day visit to approve the purchase of $4.4 billion of Airbus planes, a nuclear reactor and possibly Rafale fighter jets.

His son Seif el-Islam said the official visit, the veteran leader’s first to France since 1973, would celebrate “the new relations” between the two countries. Qadhafi and Sarkozy will meet at least twice, on Monday and Wednesday.

The invitation from Paris came after the release of six Bulgarian medics imprisoned in Libya on charges of infecting children with HIV/AIDS.

Sarkozy’s ex-wife Cecilia played a role as negotiator.

Sarkozy visited Tripoli immediately afterwards, overseeing the signing of arms sales and an accord to build a nuclear plant for water desalination, underscoring Libya’s return to the international fold after years of isolation.

But the French opposition has condemned Sarkozy’s decision to welcome the leader of a country long accused of supporting terrorism and violating human rights.

In Sofia, the freed medics said Sunday they had cancelled a planned trip to France that would have coincided with Kadhafi’s visit.

“We do not want the murderer and his victims to meet in Paris,” one of the nurses, Christiana Valcheva, said.—AFP