Monti in talks with Libyan leader Jalil

Dec 15, 2011, 10:06 GMT

Rome - Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti began talks in Rome on Thursday with the head of Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC), Mustapha Abdel Jalil.

The meeting was expected to focus on strengthening ties between Italy and its former North African colony.

Monti received Jalil at his Rome office Palazzo Chigi. Jalil was later scheduled to hold talks with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.

Italy, under former premier Silvio Berlusconi, was among the first nations to recognize the NTC as Libya's legitimate government during the popular uprising against Moamer Gaddafi.

The move represented a U-turn in Italian foreign policy, which had until then cultivated close ties with Gaddafi, with Berlusconi portraying the former leader as a personal friend.

In 2008, Berlusconi and Gaddafi signed a controversial Italy-Libya friendship agreement, which saw Italy promise 5 billion dollars to compensate the North African country for transgressions during three decades of Italian colonial rule, during the first half of the 20th century.

In exchange, Gaddafi pledged to assist Italy's conservative government curb illegal immigration across the Mediterranean by accepting the immediate deportation to Libya of migrants intercepted in international waters.

Critics, including the United Nations and the Catholic Church, denounced the deal as a violation of the rights of asylum seekers, since the deportations would take place without first having established whether the people involved were eligible for refugee status.

In March, Italy suspended the friendship agreement and began supporting a NATO mission to impose a UN no-flight zone over the North African country.

Italy's state-controlled energy giant, ENI, is among the largest foreign investors in oil-and-gas-rich Libya.

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