Rome: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi arrived in Rome yesterday for his fourth visit in a year amid steadily improving business ties with his country's former colonial ruler.
Gaddafi is in Italy to mark the second anniversary of a friendship treaty in which Italy agreed to pay Libya $5 billion (Dh18.39 billion) as compensation for its 30-year occupation, which ended in 1943.
While his schedule in Rome has not been confirmed, news reports suggested he had other appointments as well.
The ANSA news agency reported that some 200 young Italian women arrived yesterday via bus at a Libyan association near the Libyan ambassador's residence where Gaddafi will be staying.
In November, during Gaddafi's last trip to Rome, the Libyan leader hosted 200 young women who had been recruited and paid by a modelling agency.
They did not attend a party but rather a lecture on Islam during which they were given copies of the Quran, participants said at the time.
It was not clear if the women arriving near the residence yesterday were in for a similar event.
Separately, the first of some 30 Libyan horses arrived yesterday in Rome to take part in a joint demonstration with Italy's carabinieri today that is pegged to the treaty anniversary celebrations, news reports said.
New era
Gaddafi made his first visit to Italy last June, proclaiming a new era in relations following the friendship treaty. But that first visit was also marked by a symbolic demonstration that the wounds of colonialism still ran deep.
He arrived wearing a black-and-white photo pinned to his military uniform of a Libyan national hero killed by Italian colonial authorities. Gaddafi sported no such photo upon arrival yesterday at Rome's Ciampino airport, where he was greeted by Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.
Despite the colonial past, Italy and Libya have long had good ties, and major Italian corporations such as oil giant Eni have invested heavily in the oil-and-gas rich country. Libya's central bank, meanwhile, has a four per cent share in Italy's largest bank UniCredit, which earlier this month won the first international licence to operate in the North African country.
