Culled from BBC NEWS . USA's special Envoy has arrived in Tripoli for Official visit .

Tony Blair is set to offer British military training for Libyan troops when he meets Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
The prime minister is defending his visit, saying he was offering "our hand in partnership" to states giving up terror and banned
weapons.
As the Libya trip was confirmed, the Tories claimed they would distress families of Lockerbie bombing victims.
Tory Michael Ancram described the trip's timing - shortly after a Madrid memorial service - as "astonishing".
Weapons move
The Lockerbie bombing killed 270 people and their families are divided on the wisdom of the Libya talks.
Mr Blair's meeting comes after Libya announced in December that it was ending its weapons of mass destruction programmes.

The offer of military help could involve Libyan officers coming to British training academy Sandhurst.


 It does not mean forgetting the pain of the past but it does mean recognising it's time to move on

Tony Blair

Mother lambasts PM's visit

BBC News political editor Andrew Marr says the idea is to help persuade Libya it does not need weapons of mass destruction to defend
itself.
Earlier, Mr Blair attended the state memorial service for the Madrid bomb victims.
He was also holding talks with Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barraso, after which he is expected to say terror groups
like al-Qaeda must be defeated, with the alternative being living "in their shadow of fear".
Defending his Libyan trip, Mr Blair is set to add: "Let us offer to states that want to renounce terrorism and the development of
weapons of mass destruction our hand in partnership to achieve it, as Libya has rightly and courageously decided to do.
"That does not mean forgetting the pain of the past but it does mean recognising it's time to move on."
Terror support
At prime minister's questions deputy Tory leader Mr Ancram told Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, that Mr Blair's visit was
"highly questionable" and its timing even more so.


Swire, whose daughter died at Lockerbie, criticised Tory remarks

Britain had suffered from Libyan support for terrorism through Lockerbie, the murder of Wpc Yvonne Fletcher and backing for the IRA,
he said.
"Welcome as Libya's commitment to disarmament is, we should never forget the victims of Gaddafi's sponsorship of terrorism.
"Don't you at least agree that if the prime minister does meet with Colonel Gaddafi, he should sup with a very long spoon?"
Families' reaction
Earlier, Tory leader Michael Howard questioned the visit, telling BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I imagine it will cause
considerable distress to the families of the victims of Lockerbie."
Liberal Democrat peer Lord Steel accused Mr Howard of "crazed opportunism" over the comments.
And Jim Swire, from the UK Families Flight 103 campaign group, told BBC News 24 it would have been a good idea if Mr Howard had
talked to the families before making his comments and that as far he knew he had made no effort to do so.


Wpc Fletcher's mother is downbeat about inquiry progress
Mr Swire said Mr Blair's visit was the next step in welcoming Libya back into the community of nations.
But Kathleen Flynn, whose son John Patrick was killed in the bombing, said visiting Tripoli was insulting to the victims' families
when there were still not full answers over the bombing.
"So I am not happy to hear that Tony Blair is going out to make nice with Muammar Gaddafi, the person who ordered the murder of my
son," the American told BBC Radio Scotland.
Murder inquiry
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Thursday told reporters that no progress would be made on issues such as investigating Wpc
Fletcher's death without engagment with Libya.
The police officer is thought to have been shot dead by a gunman inside the Libyan embassy as she helped police a demonstration
outside in 1984.
In 1999, Libya accepted "general responsibility" for the killing and agreed to pay compensation to her family.
Queenie Fletcher, the police officer's mother, said previous hopes of finding the killer had been dashed.
Of the new visit, she said: "Maybe if something good comes out of it then it'll be worth it. But we'll just have to wait and see."
Meanwhile, Amnesty International's Lesley Warner said: "Mr Blair's visit comes at a crucial moment: it is imperative that he uses
his time in Tripoli to press for sorely needed human rights improvement in Libya."

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