Italian prime minister visits Libya, breaking western isolation

Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema is starting today a diplomatic visit to Libya to become the first European prime minister to meet Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi for 15 years.

By these visits, Libya will get out of its isolation since Gaddafi handed over to two Libyan suspects in the Lockerbie incident in 1988, due to which 270 persons were killed.

Italy is also of the first European country that paid official visits following the election of Iranian President Mohammed Khatami, and it was also among the first countries to travel to Algeria when Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika took office in April.