Rice's North African tour aims to strengthen U.S. influence

by Kang Yi

TUNIS, Sept. 4 (Chinese media) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's

four-nation North African tour starting Thursday is aimed at further

strengthening Washington's ties with Libya and U.S. influence in the region,

analysts say.

Rice's landmark trip to Libya, the first leg of her four-nation tour which

also includes Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, would usher in a new era of

relations between the two nations, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack

said this week.

"It's a historic stop," McCormack said, noting that Rice's visit will be

the first by an American secretary of state in more than half a century.

Their bilateral relations began to improve in 2003 after Libyan leader

Muammar Gaddafi announced that Tripoli was abandoning efforts to acquire weapons

of mass destruction, stop exporting terrorism and compensate the families of

victims of the Lockerbie bombing and other attacks.

Rice's visit comes after Libya and the United States finally reached a

comprehensive deal on Aug. 14, under which Tripoli would compensate U.S. victims

in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, while Libyans killed in 1986

when U.S. warplanes bombed Tripoli and Benghazi are also covered by the pay-out.

The settlement of all outstanding lawsuits against Tripoli by American

victims has paved the way for the full restoration of diplomatic ties between

the two sides, which will serve the interests of the United States, observers

said.

The Bush administration has portrayed Libya as a model for its diplomatic

success and it has even suggested the same approach might yield results in the

cases of Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

"The secretary's visit is going to be a huge demonstration of the fact that

by changing behavior, a country can change the nature of a relationship," U.S.

Assistant Secretary of State Paula De Sutter said.

"Countries that change terrorism behavior, cooperate with us, have a way

forward," she told a news briefing.

As a result of improved ties between the two countries, American companies

are beginning to scramble for a greater share of the lucrative Libyan markets,

particularly in the energy sector, jockeying with their rivals for ground lost

when U.S.-Libya ties were at their lowest ebb.

"American companies will be in fierce competition with Europeans, Asians

and others, so we need to get on the plane and go to Libya and build

relationships face to face," said David Hamod, head of the National U.S.-Arab

Chamber of Commerce.

Boasting proven oil reserves of 36 billion barrels and natural gas reserves

of 1.3 trillion cubic meters, and vast unexplored new deposits, Libya looks like

a huge cake in the eyes of the West, analysts said.

According to U.S. official statistics, in 2006, Africa replaced the Middle

East as the largest oil exporter to the United States for the first time in 21

years, exporting about 2.23 million barrels of oil per day to the country.

The eagerness of the United States and Europe to have a finger in the pie

and gain greater access to Libya's market will become more evident in the months

to come, analysts said.

According to U.S. officials, the two countries were working on a bilateral

trade and investment deal to expand commerce that may be completed in time for

Rice's arrival.

Apart from the economic interests involved, a more ambitious strategy of

the United States is to try to gain political, economic and military dominance

in the whole of the African continent by increasing its clout in North Africa

through closer cooperation in fighting terrorism and increased aid to the

region, analysts said.

In July, leaders from all the 27 EU member states and 16 North African,

Middle East and Western Balkan countries launched the Union for the

Mediterranean in France, aimed at boosting cooperation between Europe, North

Africa and the Middle East through a series of regional projects.

As EU countries, particularly France, the main former colonial ruler of

North Africa, are stepping up efforts to regain and expand their traditional

spheres of influence in the region, it is natural that the United States will

tend to see the Mediterranean Union as a potential rival and therefore is not

reconciled to see the Europeans gain the upper hand, analysts said.