Italy to revive friendship treaty with Libya

ROME - Italy and Libya will reactivate their friendship agreement which was frozen during the Libyan conflict, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said on Thursday.

"We have decided to reactivate the friendship treaty, which has been suspended, and we have re-examined concrete ways of concentrating on the priorities of the new Libya," Monti was quoted by ANSA news agency as saying after a meeting with the chairman of Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) Mustafa Abdel Jalil.

In the nearly two-hour meeting, they examined new concrete ways of concentrating on the new Libya, Monti said.

The treaty commits Italy to granting some $5 billion of colonial compensation to Libya in contracts over 20 years, including new infrastructures to be built by leading Italian firms.

The agreement is "in the interest of both countries," Jalil pointed out without giving details on whether the treaty, which was signed by former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in 2008, would go through changes.

Monti expressed Italy's willingness to unblock frozen Libyan funds, adding that some 600 million euros ($780 million) in assets had already been released.

The Italian government reportedly also unblocked funds to allow Libya's central bank to underwrite a 7.5 billion-euro ($9.7 billion) capital increase of Italy's Unicredit bank, of which it owns 4.99 percent.

In fact, the economic ties between the two Mediterranean countries had already been resumed, Jalil said.

He noted that Italy's oil giant Eni had restored 70 percent of its previous oil output as "it decided to go back to its workplaces at the side of Libyans with all the attendant dangers."

The bilateral agreement would also guarantee the safety of former combatants who would have an opportunity to study in Italy and receive care in Italian hospitals, Jalil said.

The NTC head said the Italian prime minister would travel to Tripoli in January to further strengthen the relationship between the two countries.