Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is in France today for his first official visit to the country in 34 years. Gadhafi will meet with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at least twice in his five-day visit, aimed at spurring investment in Libya. The pair will also finalize $3 billion in contracts related to Libya's transportation and military needs.
While Libya's relations with the West have improved since Gadhafi renounced his program for weapons of mass destruction in 2003, his business agenda is drawing fire.
The contracts signed this week will be worth at least $3 billion. Gadhafi's son Seif said over the weekend that Libya plans to buy French-made Airbus planes, a nuclear reactor and military equipment.
France also hopes to sell 14 Rafale fighter jets to Libya. Sarkozy says Gadhafi has proved he can be trusted and is worth dealing with again.
"If we don't welcome countries who take the path of respectability, what will we say to those who take the opposite path?" Sarkozy said in French at the Europe-Africa summit in Lisbon.
"I said to Col. Gaddafi that I will encourage his return to international respectability," Sarkozy said.
That argument isn't going over well in France, where Gadhafi's visit is getting a lot of criticism.
Pierre Moscovici, a prominent member of the French Socialist Party, says Gadhafi remains an ambiguous character.
"I find that this new friend of Nicolas Sarkozy's is being well-paid for having tortured men and women," Moscovici said in French in a television interview.
"There are still men and women being tortured in Libya today."
Other European countries, such as Germany, have balked at the idea of selling nuclear or military technology to Libya. But Libya is flush with oil money, and it desperately needs to develop its infrastructure.
Analysts say Sarkozy believes that if France doesn't deal with Gadhafi, other countries, like the United States, Britain and Russia, will.
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