From the shores of Tripoli, all roads lead to Rome

In a country where journalists' movements are strictly monitored by omnipresent handlers, it was a relief to hear that the Libyan authorities had finally approved our request to be flown to Benghazi, the coastal port city where we believed the first strike would come.

It was a jolly but somewhat nervous group of three women journalists -- myself included -- and one (Italian) male photographer who boarded the domestic flight from Tripoli. The nervousness came from the fact that the country had been under US sanctions at the time and US spare parts for its mainly American-made fleet had long been depleted. But we made it in one piece.

On arrival, we got the red carpet treatment and a convoy of brand new cars wth cellophane covers on the seats awaited our arrival at the airport. As we approached our designated car, an American journalist and I had to suppress our giggles as the driver in tinted glasses turned on the radio and Bruce Springstein's "Born in the USA" blared at full blast. Our poor driver didn't get the irony of the situation.

Suddenly, the convoy came to a halt and one of the handlers came up to our car. Dangling the promise of a possible appearance by Qadhafi himself, he asked if we minded making a slight detour on our way to the hotel.

We were so excited to be in Benghazi that no request seemed unreasonable and we agreed.

A few minutes later, we pulled up outside a dingy grey building that would have been totally inconspicuous save for a huge banner that greeted us on arrival. Welcome, it said, to the "International Scientific Conference on Colonialism and Vacuum." The sublime had now turned ridiculous.

It appeared that the nonsensical title was derived from a speech made by Qadhafi awhile back when he presented a scientific argument on his pet peeve, colonialism (so our handlers told us.) The theory, according to the Libyan leader, explained with a straight face by our handlers, was that colonialism was like storm clouds, they gather when there is a vacuum. So colonial powers move in where there is a vacuum, hence the title of our little event. That was the science bit.

The upshot of the whole adventure was that they wanted the international media to cover this event, a sad collection of unknown speakers expounding on the Great Thinker's theories on science and colonialism. Needless to say it was downhill from there on but it did explain why Libyan television was on hand to film our arrival in Benghazi. It also explained how our minders got permission for us to go to Benghazi in the first place, ostensibly to cover this non-event and also a chance for them to shop in Benghazi's better stocked state markets.

The visit ended badly when one of the journalists actually tore up the poster but that's another story. Back to the future now.

I was reminded of this incident in Benghazi while watching Libyan television as the North African oil producing state prepared to mark Qadhafi's 40 years in power on September 1.

Among the first to arrive in Tripoli was Sylvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, to attend pre-anniversary celebrations marking one year since the signing between the two countries of a friendship treaty. The cooperation agreement concluded last year put to rest years of acrimony between the two states over the legacy of Italy's colonial past in Libya. It also included a $5 billion payment by the Italian government in compensation to Tripoli.

And of course all this is good news for Eni, the Italian oil major which is the largest foreign operator in Libya, holder of the largest crude oil reserves in the African continent and a potential supplier of natural gas to Italy and the European market in the future.

Indeed, Qadhafi himself, sitting beside Berlusconi and African leaders attending a summit in the Libyan capital, declared that the Italian prime minister had put an end to the "dark history of colonialism" and paved the way for cooperation on all levels between the two countries.

A Libyan official, speaking during one of the many ceremonies to mark the occasion, said the accord would consolidate Eni's place in Libya's energy sector while allowing for stronger trading ties. The name of Omar Mukhtar, the Libyan resistance fighter who led the fight against the Italians in Libya, was evoked by every speaker from Qadhafi on down as the Italians sat silently through English and French translations of the speeches.

The Italian oil and gas company, noted one speaker, was involved not only in the oil sector, but was about to embark on a massive gas project in the western desert to supply the Italian market with natural gas by pipeline.

The Western Libyan Gas Project, in which Eni has a 50% stake as operator, is the first to valorize natural gas produced in Libya and aims to produce 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year (ed. note: corrected from earlier number), of which 8 billion cubic meters will be exported.

It is worth noting that Libya also has an eye on a stake in Eni, whose share prices soared late last year after Shokri Ghanem, the head of the Libyan National Oil Company, told the Wall Street Journal that Libya was interested in acquiring a minority stake in the Italian major.

Little wonder then that Berlusconi did not follow the lead of French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who declined an invitation to attend Qadhafi's September 1 party marking the coup which brought him to power in the former Italian colony. Sarkozy's office gave no reason for the president's decision to stay away but the furor over the release of the Lockerbie bomber is the most likely cause. It remains to be seen whether French oil major Total's operations in Libya will be affected by the decision.

Beyond oil, one Libyan speaker said, the North African country aspires to become a trade transit route not only for oil and gas but other commodities heading for the European market.

Libya is building infrastructure with upgrades to its ports, airports and road and rail systems to that end, the speaker said. This would allow Libya to handle shipments of coffee, cocoa and metals as well as provide manufactured or semi-manufactured goods to the European market, which would benefit from Libya's lower energy costs.

Berlusconi and Qadhafi were to cement the new relationship with the inauguration of a coastal highway to be built by Italian contractors. After all, all roads lead to Rome.