Libya's Gadhafi welcomed in Rome

ROME, June 10 (UPI) -- Italy's Premier Silvio Berlusconi called the visit of Libya's Moammar Gadhafi the end of a painful period in relations between the two nations.

Gadhafi arrived in Rome Wednesday to begin a three-day visit to Italy, the one-time colonial ruler of Libya until being ousted during World War II.

The ANSA news agency said Berlusconi greeted Gadhafi at Ciampino Airport and declared "a long and painful chapter in our history is closed."

Gadhafi was accompanied by his usual all-female security detail as well as an aging descendant of Omar Mukhtar, a Libyan resistance leader hanged by Italian police in 1931.

The two Mediterranean nations last year signed an accord that includes Rome's pledge to spend $200 million over the next 25 years on various public works projects and land-mine removal. In exchange, Libya will consider claims from some 20,000 Italians kicked out of the country by Gadhafi in the 1970s.