U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in the Libyan capital of Tripoli on Saturday for a brief visit of the North African country which has embarked on a road to reconstruction after a months-old civil war, dpa reported.
During the visit, Panetta is expected to meet with Libyan interim Prime Minister Abdel Rahim el-Keeb as well as the country' s defense officials on the security needs of the new leaders of the country, who overthrew the decades-long rule of former leader Muammar Gaddafi and declared the country's rebirth about two months ago.
Panetta is among a number of senior Western government officials to visit post-war Libya lately including French Foreign Affairs Minister Alain Juppe and Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Janos Martonyi.