TRIPOLI, Nov 25: President Jacques Chirac, who vowed to forge a "true partnership" with Libya, on Thursday wrapped up the latest top-level western visit to Tripoli as it returns from years in the diplomatic wilderness.

"All the conditions have come together to open a new chapter in relations between Libya and France," Mr Chirac told a press conference, shoulder-to-shoulder with Libyan leader Moamer Qadhafi.

During a fleeting trip of less than 24 hours, Mr Chirac met Mr Qadhafi three times and pressed business leaders to do the "maximum" to rejuvenate the oil-rich Libyan economy, blighted by decades of sanctions.

The visit - the first by a French head of state since Libyan independence from Italy in 1951 - will give France a chance to compete for lucrative business contracts should Mr Qadhafi make good on his promise to liberalize the economy.

Mr Qadhafi, who welcomed Mr Chirac as a "friend", said their talks had consolidated an alliance between two countries who wanted to distance Africa and Europe from the problems of the Middle East and America.

"The results of the visit were good. (It) consolidated the understanding between us and France, especially as France plays a vital role in the European Union and Libya plays a vital role in the African Union," he said.

"We are trying to distance Africa and Europe from the problems of the Middle East and the problems of the American continent," he said at the vast Bab Aziz palace that still bears the traces of a 1986 US bombing mission.

His comments followed a newspaper report in which Qadhafi was quoted as saying he "never understood the reasons for France's military presence in Africa" and called Paris' recent intervention in Ivory Coast a mistake.

Mr Chirac said his visit, which follows a long line of meetings between Mr Qadhafi and European leaders, underscores France's will to "turn the page on a past of painful memories".

Mr Qadhafi has undergone a spectacular diplomatic reversal in the past year since agreeing to stop developing weapons of mass destruction, denouncing terrorism and acknowledging responsibility for the Lockerbie and French UTA plane bombings in the 1980s. -AFP