Tripoli  - US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice met with her Libyan counterpart on Friday after she arrived here on a landmark visit to discuss ways to boost cooperation between the two countries.

Rice and Libyan Foreign Minister Abdul Rahman Shulqum expressed satisfaction over improving bilateral relations. They discussed economic cooperation between the two countries, especially in the oil sector.

Tripoli  - Son of Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi said that the Libyan government had only claimed responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing in order to normalize ties with the West and get international sanctions lifted.

"Yes, we wrote a letter to the Security Council saying we are responsible for the acts of our employees... but it doesn't mean that we did it in fact," Saif al-Islam Gaddafi said in an interview to be broadcast Sunday by the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Tripoli  - Two men who hijacked a Sudanese plane in Darfur and forced it to fly to Libya have given themselves up to authorities there.

The two earlier released all 87 passengers but kept six of the crew hostage, according to, Libyan state television which announced their surrender.

The hijackers, members of a splinter group of the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA), had demanded the Boeing 737 be refueled and allowed to leave for Paris.

Tripoli  - Libya has halted all of its fuel supplies to Switzerland and barred Swiss ships from its ports in a protest against last week's detention of the son of the Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi in Geneva, media reports said Thursday.

Supplies affected are those transported by ships operated by Libya's state shipping company, Libya's General National Maritime Transportation Company, which says it is the only Libyan-based firm supplying oil to Switzerland.

Tripoli, Lebanon  - Lebanese army

Tripoli, Lebanon - A cautious calm prevailed over the northern city of Tripoli early Thursday as weary citizens waited for the army and security forces to carry out a redeployment plan and halt cl