Libya invites Bush and Rice for visit

Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, keen to improve ties with the West, has invited United States President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to visit his country.

US Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Richard Lugar, ending a two-day trip to Libya, said he had held talks with Gaddafi on normalising relations after decades of estrangement, following Tripoli's decision to abandon weapons of mass destruction.

Lugar's trip was the highest-profile US visit to Libya since relations began to thaw.