US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice met
with her Libyan counterpart on Friday after she arrived here on a landmark
visit to discuss ways to boost cooperation between the two countries.
Rice and Libyan Foreign Minister Abdul Rahman Shulqum expressed
satisfaction over improving bilateral relations. They discussed economic
cooperation between the two countries, especially in the oil sector.
"We tackled several important issues during the meeting, like Iraq,
Palestine, Lebanon, US-Syrian relations and Syria's role in the Arab
world," Shulqum told the official JANA news agency.
Shulqum said Rice commented "on the progress of the relations between our
countries and that presence of a deep political dialogue."
During her five-hour visit, Rice is scheduled to meet Libyan President Moamer
Gaddafi before she holds a press conference.
She has also been invited to visit the house where the Libyan leader's adopted
daughter died in a US air raid on Tripoli in 1986.
The visit is seen as the opening of a new era after more than half a century of
strained US-Libyan relations.
The last US secretary of state to visit Libya was John Foster Dulles in 1953, dpa reported.