TRIPOLI, 30 June 2004 — The United States and Libya formally re-established direct diplomatic relations on Monday, after a 24-year break, when US Middle East envoy William Burns opened a US liaison office in Tripoli.

The move came six months after Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi agreed to dismantle the country’s nuclear, chemical and biological warfare programs and renounce the pursuit of such weapons.

Burns inaugurated the US Liaison Office in Tripoli and resumption of direct diplomatic ties, said a statement issued by the US office at the conclusion of his visit.

“This occurs 24 years after the withdrawal of American personnel and the closure of the US Embassy.”

Burns noted that “Libya would be taking its own steps to establish diplomatic representation in the US,” the statement said.

“Both sides confirmed that these actions would assist the step-by-step process of strengthening relations as Libya fulfills each of its commitments and the US continues to respond in kind.”

Earlier, Burns held talks with Qaddafi and delivered a message from President George W. Bush, the state news agency JANA reported.

It said the message underlined the Bush administration’s policy of “pursuing the process of normalizing political, economic, commercial and cultural relations with Libya.”

The State Department statement said the two sides discussed “Libya’s commitment to support the global war on terrorism, to repudiate the use of violence for political purposes, and to implement its pledge to cease all support for terrorism.”

US-Libyan relations have improved since Libya’s vow in December to abandon banned weapons and an earlier agreement to accept responsibility for the 1988 bombing of a PanAm airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people, and pay compensation to the victims’ families.

Burns arrived on Sunday in Tripoli with Cofer Black, the State Department’s counter-terrorism chief. A senior State Department official said last week the two envoys would lay out Washington’s ongoing concerns about Tripoli’s alleged support for terrorism.

US-Libya relations were first strained after Qaddafi’s 1969 coup.

By the early 1980s, the embassies in both countries were closed and the US began establishing a series of trade and travel embargoes on Libya. Former US President Ronald Reagan blamed Libya for a 1986 bomb attack on a discotheque in West Berlin frequented by US servicemen, in which two GIs were killed and more than 250 people injured.

Reagan retaliated by ordering airstrikes on the Libyan capital Tripoli. A German court on Thursday again blamed Libya for ordering the Berlin outrage and confirmed prison sentences handed down to four people for the attack.

Belgium has represented US interests in Tripoli during the 24-year break in diplomatic relations.