( Reuters ) - Libyan Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam will meet U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the United States on January 3, the two countries said on Friday.
Shalgam told reporters he received an invitation from Rice. "I will have a meeting with her on January 3," he said in Paris.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Rice and Shalgam would discuss U.S.-Libya relations and regional issues in talks at the department.
Rice would also continue urging Libya to resolve outstanding claims cases from the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, which cost 270 lives, he said.
Libya has rehabilitating itself with westerns powers after years of isolation following the Lockerbie bombing. U.S.-Libyan ties have warmed since Libya gave up weapons of mass destruction in 2003, prompting the United States to ease sanctions on the North African oil exporter.
The United States took military action against Libya and imposed economic sanctions in 1986 in retaliation for Libya's suspected involvement in bombing of West Berlin discotheque frequented by U.S. military personnel.