TRIPOLI, 20 December 2004 — Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin yesterday became the latest in a parade of world leaders to meet Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi as the nation cements its emergence from diplomatic isolation.

Martin was expected to use his two-day visit to push for a liberalization of Libya’s economy, political system and human rights policies and to make a strong pitch for Canadian business as the Libyan economy opens.

After Martin’s talks with Qaddafi, Libyan Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem said the meeting covered relations between the two countries and efforts to resolve the crisis in Sudan’s western Darfur region.

“The meeting discussed ways to develop bilateral relations and both sides outlined their points of view,” Ghanem told reporters. “Libya has undertaken significant reforms over the past five years, and this visit is an opportunity to encourage the country’s leadership to continue along this path,” Martin said in a statement last week.

Already this year, Qaddafi has held talks with French President Jacques Chirac, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Firms in Canada, also a member of the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations, are eyeing a role in Libya’s economy, now a raft of international sanctions has been lifted since Tripoli came in from the diplomatic wilderness.

Qaddafi, who shot to power in a 1969 coup, has undergone a dramatic diplomatic rebirth over the last year, by 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.

Martin’s visit was lent extra spice, when the Libyan leader’s influential son Saif Al-Islam Qaddafi, last week lambasted Ottawa for sharing US hostility toward Tripoli during the 1980s. He complained in an interview with Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper that Canada, which had two citizens killed in Lockerbie, had slapped sanctions on Libya following the disaster despite not being involved in the dispute.

Conveniently, the younger Qaddafi was expected to be abroad during Martin’s visit, a senior Canadian official said.