by Kang Yi

    TUNIS, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's four-nation North African tour starting Thursday is aimed at further strengthening Washington's ties with Libya and U.S. influence in the region, analysts say.

    Rice's landmark trip to Libya, the first leg of her four-nation tour which also includes Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, would usher in a new era of relations between the two nations, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said this week.

    "It's a historic stop," McCormack said, noting that Rice's visit will be the first by an American secretary of state in more than half a century.

    Their bilateral relations began to improve in 2003 after Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi announced that Tripoli was abandoning efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction, stop exporting terrorism and compensate the families of victims of the Lockerbie bombing and other attacks.

    Rice's visit comes after Libya and the United States finally reached a comprehensive deal on Aug. 14, under which Tripoli would compensate U.S. victims in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, while Libyans killed in 1986 when U.S. warplanes bombed Tripoli and Benghazi are also covered by the pay-out.

    The settlement of all outstanding lawsuits against Tripoli by American victims has paved the way for the full restoration of diplomatic ties between the two sides, which will serve the interests of the United States, observers said.

    The Bush administration has portrayed Libya as a model for its diplomatic success and it has even suggested the same approach might yield results in the cases of Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

    "The secretary's visit is going to be a huge demonstration of the fact that by changing behavior, a country can change the nature of a relationship," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Paula De Sutter said.

    "Countries that change terrorism behavior, cooperate with us, have a way forward," she told a news briefing.

    As a result of improved ties between the two countries, American companies are beginning to scramble for a greater share of the lucrative Libyan markets, particularly in the energy sector, jockeying with their rivals for ground lost when U.S.-Libya ties were at their lowest ebb.

    "American companies will be in fierce competition with Europeans, Asians and others, so we need to get on the plane and go to Libya and build relationships face to face," said David Hamod, head of the National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce.

    Boasting proven oil reserves of 36 billion barrels and natural gas reserves of 1.3 trillion cubic meters, and vast unexplored new deposits, Libya looks like a huge cake in the eyes of the West, analysts said.

    According to U.S. official statistics, in 2006, Africa replaced the Middle East as the largest oil exporter to the United States for the first time in 21 years, exporting about 2.23 million barrels of oil per day to the country.

    The eagerness of the United States and Europe to have a finger in the pie and gain greater access to Libya's market will become more evident in the months to come, analysts said.

    According to U.S. officials, the two countries were working on a bilateral trade and investment deal to expand commerce that may be completed in time for Rice's arrival.

    Apart from the economic interests involved, a more ambitious strategy of the United States is to try to gain political, economic and military dominance in the whole of the African continent by increasing its clout in North Africa through closer cooperation in fighting terrorism and increased aid to the region, analysts said.

    In July, leaders from all the 27 EU member states and 16 North African, Middle East and Western Balkan countries launched the Union for the Mediterranean in France, aimed at boosting cooperation between Europe, North Africa and the Middle East through a series of regional projects.

    As EU countries, particularly France, the main former colonial ruler of North Africa, are stepping up efforts to regain and expand their traditional spheres of influence in the region, it is natural that the United States will tend to see the Mediterranean Union as a potential rival and therefore is not reconciled to see the Europeans gain the upper hand, analysts said.