December 16, 2004
Ottawa, Ontario

NEWS RELEASE

Prime Minister Paul Martin today announced that he will visit Libya on December 19 and 20, 2004, on the one year anniversary of Libya’s decision to end its weapons of mass destruction development program and provide full access to the country by the relevant international inspection bodies. This will be the first visit to that country by a Canadian prime minister.

“Libya has undertaken significant reforms over the past five years, and this visit is an opportunity to encourage the country’s leadership to continue along this path,” said the Prime Minister. I will also raise a number of topics of mutual interest, including the resolution of regional conflicts in Africa, the situation of human rights in Libya and trade.”

On December 19, the Prime Minister will meet with Colonel Muammar Qadhafi and the Secretary of the General People’s Congress, Shukri Ghanem. Prior to an official dinner that evening, the Prime Minister will also meet with officials in charge of one of the largest engineering projects in the world, the Great Man-Made River Project. Canadian firm SNC-Lavalin is involved in this mega-project, a pipeline system that will provide water from artesian wells in the Sahara desert to the coastal population of Libya. By the time the project is completed, its pipe network will cover a distance equivalent to that separating Montreal and Vancouver − nearly 4,000 kilometres.

On December 20th, the Prime Minister will attend a roundtable with Canadian companies involved in the civil engineering, aerospace, oil and gas and telecommunications sectors in Libya.