Britain to help rebuild Gaddafi's military

Published on Thursday 25 March 2004 00:00

Key Points

• Blair to offer Libya military aid in return for declaring WMDs

• Deal may include training Libyan cadets and MOD expert advice

• Offer puts UK firms in pole position to sell arms to Libya

• Shell in talks to explore Libyan gas fields and BAE negotiating civil aviation deal

Key Quote: "Let us offer to states that want to renounce terrorism and the development of WMD our hand in partnership to achieve it, as Libya has rightly and courageously decided to do." Tony Blair.

Story in full: TONY Blair will today meet Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi to offer military co-operation with British armed forces, in a startling acceleration of the peace deal in Libya brokered only three months ago.

The Prime Minister will say that as a reward for renouncing weapons of mass destruction, the Ministry of Defence will help Tripoli to build a conventional army and air force - putting British firms in pole position to sell arms to Libya.

Mr Blair last night admitted "taking a risk" - but issued an impassioned defence, saying that Britain was offering its "hand of partnership" to Libya and was ready to accept the military dictatorship as an ally in the war on terror.

In a visit cleared and approved by the families of the 1988 Lockerbie bomb victims, Mr Blair will today become the first British prime minister to hold talks with Col Gaddafi, who openly supported the IRA in the 1980s.

After attending the state funeral for the 190 victims of the Madrid bomb a fortnight ago, and holding talks in Lisbon with Portugal’s prime minister, Mr Blair will arrive in Tripoli this morning for two hours of talks.

Speaking inside a complex of tents chosen by Colonel al-Gaddafi, Mr Blair will make clear that the Libyan leader’s government can no longer suggest it accepted responsibility for Lockerbie simply to "buy peace".

He will ask that Libya recognises Israel and co-operates with the Metropolitan Police in their investigation into the 1984 murder of Yvonne Fletcher, who was shot outside the Libyan Embassy in London.

But as a reward for Libya’s surrender of a 20-tonne stockpile of mustard gas and nerve agent precursors, Mr Blair will offer the services of the Ministry of Defence in building a conventional military.

Downing Street officials said this could involve training Libyan cadets at Sandhurst, the British Army’s officer academy, and making the advice of MoD "military experts" readily available to Tripoli.

"Our view is that Libya’s decision on weapons of mass destruction should make them more secure, not less secure," said a senior British official. "We have already started the process of giving them expert advice."

He added that Shell, the oil giant, was "within days" of striking a deal to explore gasfields off the Libyan cost and that British Aerospace, the UK’s largest arms firm, was in "advanced negotiations" for a civil aviation deal.

Mr Blair said that building links with Libya was part of a six-point plan which he wanted European leaders to endorse when the European summit starts in Brussels this evening.

"Let us offer to states that want to renounce terrorism and the development of WMD our hand in partnership to achieve it, as Libya has rightly and courageously decided to do," he said last night.

"That does not mean forgetting the pain of the past. But it does mean recognising change when it happens." No 10 officials stressed that this meant Mr Blair had neither forgotten nor forgiven Libya’s role in the Lockerbie bombing.

A senior British official yesterday confirmed that the UK is pushing for the end of the arms embargo - as disclosed in The Scotsman a fortnight ago. This, he said, should take place "in the next few months." He noted that Col Gaddafi himself received military training in Britain in 1977.

Baroness Symons, the Foreign Office minister, has spoken with the Lockerbie families who supported Mr Blair. This left Michael Howard, the Tory leader, alone yesterday in condemning the visit, which he said would cause "considerable distress" to the Lockerbie families.

Jim Swire, the UK Families Flight 103 campaign group leader, said Mr Blair’s visit would "greatly diminish the chances of a backsliding of support for terrorism, so we are greatly in favour of such a move".

Marjory McQueen, a Lockerbie councillor, said: "As far as the community of Lockerbie is concerned, we moved on many years ago. On a purely personal basis, I have sympathy with the views of the American relatives who American relatives who see it as a betrayal."