Gadhafi welcome Rice to Libya

TRIPOLI, Libya, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi discussed the weather Friday in their first of three meetings in Tripoli.

Rice told Gadhafi, "The first (Gulf Coast hurricane) was not as bad as feared, but there are two more coming," CNN reported.

It was the first time in more than 50 years that a U.S. secretary of state has visited the former outcast nation.

Gadhafi, wearing a white robe and a black fez, shook the hands of the male members of Rice's staff but not Rice's, instead offering the traditional greeting of his hand over his heart for her, CNN said. Muslim men are prohibited from shaking hands with women who are not relatives.

Rice also met with the Libyan foreign minister and toured the U.S. embassy.

Rice is expected to raise the issue of political prisoners, especially Fathi al-Jahami, a Libyan reformer held since 2002, CNN said.

The United States restored relations with Tripoli in 2005, after Gadhafi abandoned his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, renounced terrorism and agreed to compensate victims of the 1986 La Belle disco bombing in Berlin and the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. The United States also removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Many of the Lockerbie families criticized Rice's decision to meet with Gadhafi, whom they say is still unremorseful for the attack that killed 280 people, 180 of them American.