Gaddafi invites Bush and Rice to visit Libya
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi - keen to improve ties with the West - has invited US President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to visit Libya.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi - keen to improve ties with the West - has invited US President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to visit Libya.
US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar said the invitation had been extended during his two day trip to Libya.
Lugar raised issues of economic cooperation, terrorism, and Libya's human rights records during his talks with Gaddafi on the most high profile US visit since relations between the two countries began to thaw.
In a boost to their profile and human rights record, Libya is to release 131 political prisoners, including members of the banned group, The Muslim Brotherhood.
The Muslim Brotherhood – banned in most Arab countries - advocates a Muslim state through peaceful political activity.
Saif Al Islam, the Libyan leader's son, said the prisoners are to be freed in the next few days, but did not give further details.
Small batches of political detainees have been released in recent years on behalf of the Gaddafi Charity Foundation, which aims to improve Libya's human rights record.
Al Islam, speaking on Al Jazeera TV on Sunday, also said that Libyans who lost businesses and other assets during the revolutionary days of the early 1970s would recover their properties or be compensated.
