Tripoli  - The United States has opened a trade office in Libya to boost bilateral economic relations, the official JANA news agency reported on Monday.

US assistant secretary for trade, Israel Hernandez, was at the official opening on Sunday with Libyan government representatives as well as businessmen from both countries, JANA said.

Hernandez explained that the move aims to increase trade exchange between the two countries, according to JANA

The opening of the trade office is seen by observers as yet another sign of warming relations between the two former arch-foes.

The move comes one month after a landmark visit to Libya by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Cairo - Nineteen people kidnapped by an unknown group of masked men in the Egyptian Western Desert have now been transferred to Libya, the Arab satellite broadcaster al-Arabiya reported on hursday, days after they were taken from Egypt to Sudan.

The kidnapped group consists of eleven tourists - five Germans, five Italians and one Romanian - plus eight Egyptian travel company staff.

The travellers had been on a desert safari of Egypt's Gilf Kebir region in the Western Desert when they were snatched by a gang of masked men on September 19.

Punj Lloyd Upstream Ltd, a subsidiary of Indian engineering, procurement and construction major Punj Lloyd Ltd, has informed that it has received a Letter of Intent (LoI) from Waha Oil Company, Libya.

Under the arrangement, the company will execute a contract, which is valued at approx US$ 42 million, for drilling exploratory wells in the Gialo oilfield of the prolific Sirte Basin.

Waha Oil Co. is a joint venture between State-owned National Oil Company, Conoco Philips, Amerada Hess Corp. and Marathon Corp, which is the second largest crude oil producer in Libya.

Lahore, Sep 12: Libya got its nuclear warhead documents from Pakistan’s disgraced nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan’s supplier network and not China, said a US State Department official.

China gave Pakistan nuclear weapons technology and equipment in the 1980s as part of a strategic effort to counter India’s nuclear weapons, the Washington Times quoted the official, as saying.

Tripoli/Washington - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi discussed common interests such as the fight against terrorism and laid the basis for cultural, trade and diplomatic ties during their historic meeting, Washington's chief diplomat said late Friday.

Tripoli - Tight security has been imposed for US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's meeting with Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi scheduled for later Friday.

Details of Rice's stay have been kept vague as a precaution against a possible terrorist attack, the newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat said.

Libyan government sources said the secretary of state was due to arrive early evening and meet Gaddafi in a tent, probably in the capital Tripoli.

She has also been invited to visit the house where the Libyan leader's adopted daughter died in a US air raid on Tripoli in 1986.

The sources said Rice would land at a military airport outside the capital on the first leg of a four-nation tour of North Africa.