LONDON, Feb. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to hold landmark talks with Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Mohammed Shalgam next Tuesday on Libya's commitments to scrap its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons development programs, the Foreign Office said Friday.

    "This is a milestone in what have been steadily improving relations," said a Foreign Office official.

    Shalgam's visit to London, the first by a Libyan foreign minister to Britain since 1969, is believed to be the highest-level contact between the two countries and comes following Friday's meeting between senior officials from Britain, the United States and Libya.

    William Burns, US assistant secretary of state for the Near East, led the US officials in Friday's talks which are said to focus on Libya's disarmament process, sources said.

    London's Financial Times newspaper reported Friday that the tripartite talks were expected to address Libya's desire for a gesture that rewards its decision to scrap its weapons.

    A US official was quoted by the paper as saying that the meeting could lead to the opening of a US diplomatic interests office in Tripoli and the easing of travel restrictions on US citizens.

    However, the paper said there was little expectation in Washington of an immediate lifting of economic sanctions.

    Britain played a key diplomatic role in securing Tripoli's pledge last December to abandon plans to develop banned weapons.

    Britain, which broke off diplomatic relations with Libya in 1984 after a British policewoman was killed by a shot fired from the Libyan embassy in London, restored ties with the north African state in 1999. Enditem