Kadafi Urges Global Approach

Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi on Tuesday described last month’s attacks on the United States as “horrifying” and called for an international conference to define terrorism and then fight it.

“We must sit down at any level without emotions . . . and after we define terrorism we agree on fighting terrorism,” Kadafi, long regarded by Washington as a sponsor of international terrorism, told Qatar’s Al Jazeera satellite TV network.

“It is not logical that a country that is a member of the United Nations would shy from fighting terrorism,” he added in an interview with the popular Arabic network.

Kadafi also said that any definition of terrorism must encompass “economic sanctions, using the United Nations to legalize such sanctions and the killing of innocent people.”

The U.N. imposed an air and arms embargo on Libya for failing to hand over two Libyans who were suspected of bombing a Pan Am flight over Scotland in 1988.

The sanctions were suspended in 1999 when Libya gave up the two men for trial. The United States is now trying to get Tripoli to admit to involvement in the bombing as part of an effort to pave the way for the removal of the embargo.

Washington continues to maintain sanctions on Libya designed to curb foreign investment in its oil and gas sector.

Kadafi, who has often assailed the United States for its policies in the Middle East and elsewhere, called the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon “horrifying, destructive,” and said they had caused enormous loss of life and economic damage that had affected all countries.

He said that individuals with “a cause” appeared to be behind the carefully executed attacks, but he appeared puzzled that no one had claimed responsibility.

Washington has blamed Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden and his followers in Afghanistan for masterminding the attacks.

The maverick Libyan leader reiterated that Washington had the right to seek revenge for the attacks without asking for anyone’s permission, but he pointedly evaded answering direct questions on U.S. military attacks on Afghanistan.

Last week, amid an anthrax scare in the United States, Kadafi condemned the use of the bacterium as a biological weapon, describing it as “the worst form of terrorism.”

Kadafi’s toned-down anti-American rhetoric was uncharacteristic of the man who spent decades railing against the United States for striking Tripoli shortly after blaming Libya for a 1986 bomb attack on a Berlin nightclub frequented by American service personnel.

But it appeared in line with his recent attempts to improve Libya’s image and mend ties with the West.