Canadian PM to join stream of leaders heading for Libya

OTTAWA, Dec 16 (AFP) — Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin will Sunday join the parade of leaders who have met Libya’s Moamer Kadhafi this year, as the once pariah nation cements its emergence from diplomatic isolation.

Martin will press Kadhafi to continue his mediation role between rebel factions in Sudan’s violence torn region of Darfur and raise human rights concerns, senior officials said.

But he will also make a strong pitch for Canadian business as Libya’s economy opens and sparks a rush of suitors among foreign corporations.

Martin is expected to meet the Libyan leader sometime on Sunday, though the exact program is still to be confirmed, in line with Kadhafi’s penchant for a flexible schedule.

“We are dealing with one of the more distinctive leaders in the world and his program tends to be fixed just before it happens,” a senior official told reporters here on condition of anonymity on Thursday.

Kadhafi, who came to power in a 1969 coup, has undergone a spectacular diplomatic rebirth over the last year, after agreeing to stop developing weapons of mass destruction, denouncing terrorism and accepting responsibility for the bombing of a US airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland in the 1980s.

Canadian officials said they would press Kadhafi to remain on the road of reform and to live up to those commitments.

Martin will also push for a liberalisation of Libya’s economy, political system and human rights policies, the officials said.

But he will also make a pitch for a slice of the action for Canadian firms in Libya in the wake of the lifting of punishing sanctions on the oil and gas rich nation.

Martin’s visit, which ends Monday, follows talks this year between Kadhafi and other Western leaders including French President Jacques Chirac, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.