US President George W. Bush has written Libyan leader Moammar
Khadafy saying Washington wants to strengthen ties with Libya,
Libyan news agency Jana reported.
The news agency said Bush's homeland security adviser, Frances
Townsend, handed Khadafy the letter when she met him in Tripoli
late on Monday.
"We have achieved a great deal since we restored relations
between the United States and Libya. I believe both our peoples
have benefited from the development of these relations," Jana
quoted Bush as saying in the letter.
Jana said: "President Bush affirmed in his letter the
willingness of the United States to develop and reinforce its
relations with Libya."
The United States resumed diplomatic relations with Libya, which
had been severed for 24 years, in June 2004 after Libya announced
the previous December it was abandoning its weapons of mass
destruction programs.
In May 2006, Washington announced it would restore full
diplomatic ties with Tripoli.
But the case of six foreign medics condemned to death in Libya
on charges they infected hundreds of children with the virus that
causes AIDS is a hurdle to deepening Libyan ties with the European
Union and the United States.
Both Brussels and Washington have urged Tripoli to free the
medics, five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor.
(China Daily via agencies July 11, 2007)
