CAIRO, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi met in Tripoli late Friday with an aim to turn a new page in the Washington-Tripoli relations, said reports reaching here from the Libyan capital.

    The meeting took place in a building in a government compound in central Tripoli, where Gaddafi raised a hand to his chest in a traditional gesture of welcome, according to the reports.

    Gaddafi, wearing a white robe decorated with a broach in the shape of Africa, also shook hands with members of Rice's staff though there was no handshake between the two leaders, said the reports.

    The two sides discussed means of boosting bilateral relations as well as African and Arab issues, including the US role in solving African crises, especially in the Sudanese region of Darfur, said Egypt's official MENA news agency.

    Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel-Rahman Shalgam also attended the talks.

    Rice will hold a press conference later in the day at the end of her visit to Libya, MENA said.

    The United States had no diplomatic relations with Libya from 1980 until after the latter pledged to abandon weapons of mass destruction programs, stop exporting terrorism and pay compensation to the families of victims of the 1998 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland and a 1986 attack on a disco in Berlin.

    Since renouncing terrorism and weapons of mass destruction in 2003, Libya is no longer on the U.S. State Department's list of "state sponsors of terrorism."

    Rice arrived in Libya earlier on Friday for "a landmark meeting" with Libyan leader Gaddafi, the pan-Arab al-Jazeera TV channel reported.

    Upon touching down, Rice, the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Libya since 1953, said that it is a proof that the United States had no "permanent enemies, " according to the TV report.

    Following Rice's visit to Libya, she will also travel to Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, her spokesman announced Tuesday.