Libya`s Gaddafi Begins Russia Talks With Medvedev

In September, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Gaddafi in Libya, the first such visit in 55 years.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday for talks expected to focus on arms purchases and the possible opening of a Russian naval base in Libya to counterbalance U.S. interests in Africa.

The visit is Gaddafi's first to Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union and coincides with an improvement in Libya's relations with the United States after years of enmity.

"I hope my visit will be useful for our relations," Gaddafi told Medvedev at the start of talks at the Meiendorf Castle official residence outside Moscow.

Gaddafi was in Moscow for the first time since 1985 as part of a bold push to accelerate overseas trade and investment for the booming post-sanctions economy of the former outcast state.

Energy and arms are the focus of the three-day trip. Russian media have reported that Gaddafi may be looking to buy more than $2 billion of arms from Russia.

Russia's Kommersant newspaper said Gaddafi may offer Russia the chance to open a naval base in the Libyan port of Benghazi.

"Russia's military presence will become a guarantee of non-aggression from the United States which, despite numerous conciliatory gestures, is not in a hurry to embrace Colonel Gaddafi," Kommersant said.

The Kremlin and Russian naval officials could not be reached for comment on the report.

Moscow also is seeking rich energy contracts in Libya, owner of Africa's largest oil reserves, and state gas giant Gazprom is showing interest in taking part in the construction of a new gas pipeline linking Libya and Europe.

"Military hardware is on top of the shopping list," said Mustafa Fetouri, a Libyan political analyst.

"The Russians have already won some drilling and exploration concessions in Libya... Libya still has its own calculations and suspicions of the USA."

Washington for years considered Gaddafi a supporter of terrorism. The United Nations imposed sanctions on Tripoli in 1992 to pressure it to hand over two Libyan suspects in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner, lifting them in 2003.

In September, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Gaddafi in Libya, the first such visit in 55 years. The trip was designed to show the improvement in relations, five years after Libya gave up its weapons of mass destruction programme.

The U.S. State Department said on Friday that Libya has paid $1.5 billion into a fund for victims of terrorism, a step that will remove a major obstacle to improving U.S.-Libyan ties.

After a decade of strong economic growth, Russia is keen to project its power. Russian warships, led by a nuclear-powered missile cruiser, docked in Libya this month on their way to Venezuela to take part in joint naval exercises.

Libya also has hosted a Russian frigate sent to fight piracy in the Gulf of Aden. Sevastopol, on Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, is Russia's only functioning naval base abroad.