Saif al-Islam Gaddafi

Jerusalem, Jan. 7 (Reuters): An Israeli lawmaker who met the son of Muammar Gaddafi last summer said today the Libyan leader could go as far as forging ties with the Jewish state that has long considered him an enemy.

But a senior Israeli foreign ministry source said “the road to establishing relations between Israel and Libya is a long one” and added that Gaddafi “must prove by action that he truly intends to conduct dialogue”.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is also sceptical about recent meetings with Libyan officials, including secret talks held two weeks ago with a senior foreign ministry official, a top political source said.

Word of the diplomatic initiative surfaced after Libya issued a surprise announcement last month that it was abandoning its unconventional weapons, a move welcomed by the US as a key step toward ending Libya’s international isolation.

Ephraim Sneh of the Opposition Labour party said he and a member of Shinui, a centrist party in Israel’s governing coalition, met in August with Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who analysts believe is being groomed as his father’s successor.

“My impression is that Gaddafi has made a strategic decision and he is not a man who takes small steps,” Sneh told Israel Radio. “He will not stop midway and could even go as far as forging ties with Israel... Right now it is in Gaddafi’s hands.”

Any breakthrough would be a major turnabout in relations between the two countries. Libya has long been a sworn foe of Israel and for years sheltered anti-Israel militants, including Palestinian guerrilla chief Abu Nidal, who died of gunshot wounds in Baghdad last year.

In 1973, Israel shot down a Libyan airliner with more than 100 people aboard after it strayed into Israeli airspace.

At a non-aligned summit in Belgrade in 1989, Gaddafi suggested that Jews should move to a new homeland in the French region of Alsace-Lorraine, Alaska or the Baltic states.

Political sources confirmed a television report that senior Israeli foreign ministry official Ron Prosor met a Libyan representative two weeks ago to discuss opening a dialogue.

The sources said Sharon received a report on the meeting but it was not known whether the talks had yielded any progress.

The daily Yedioth Ahronoth said the Libyan official had broached the subject of Israel’s presumed unconventional weapons arsenal, asking whether it would agree to disarm as Libya had, but the newspaper gave no indication of Prosor's response.