Tripoli  - Libyan President Moamar Gaddafi, in another jab at a government he says is failing the people, called late Saturday for the country's oil revenues to be distributed directly to the population.

In a speech to the People's Congresses, a representative body of the country's villages, Gaddafi said 32 billion dollars - roughly Libya's annual oil revnues - should be distributed to Libya's five million people.

Gaddafi said the plan would help the country to overcome corruption in the government.

Kampala - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is suing a Kampala tabloid after it alleged he is having an affair with a Queen Mother of a Ugandan kingdom, the newspaper's editor said Saturday.

Gaddafi's lawyers have filed a suit totalling 1 billion dollars againts the editors of The Red Pepper over the paper's reports that he is in love with Tooro Kingdom's Queen Mother Best Kemigisha, editor Ben Byaraba told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Gaza City - A Libyan ship set sail to the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, carrying aid to the residents of the besieged enclave, a Palestinian official said.

Jamal al-Khodary, the head of the Popular Committee against the Siege on Gaza, said the ship set out on its voyage from the port city of Zuwarah on the Mediterranean Sea with 3,000 tons of medical supplies and humanitarian aid on board.

"The aid is donated by the Libyan state and its people," al- Khodary told reporters in Gaza, adding the voyage was one of a series of Arab attempts to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza.

Washington  - The US Senate has approved sending the first US ambassador to Libya in 36 years, the final step in warming relations between the one-time enemies since 2003.

"We're very pleased, very pleased," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday.

But Gene Cretz, the veteran US diplomat confirmed by the Senate, could have a very short-lived tenure as ambassador to Libya. President-elect Barack Obama has the opportunity to change any US ambassadors he sees fit when he enters office on January 20.

The Senate confirmed Cretz's appointment late Thursday night.

Washington  - US President George W Bush on Monday telephoned Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi in a sign of warmer ties following an agreement to compensate victims of terrorism.

"The two leaders discussed that this agreement should help to bring a painful chapter in the history between our two countries closer to closure," Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman, said.

The US government confirmed earlier this month that 1.5 billion dollars had been transferred by Libya into a fund to compensate victims or their families for terrorist attacks.

Valletta, Malta  - The foreign ministers of Italy, Libya and Malta are to meet on December 5 to discuss illegal immigration and oil exploration in the waters between the three countries, it was stated Monday.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini and Libyan Foreign Minister Abdurrahman Mohamed Shalgem will be meeting in Malta at the invitation of Foreign Minister Tonio Borg.

Borg told Parliament Monday this was the first time that concrete proposals had been made on the delineation of the waters for oil exploration purposes.