U.S. senator: Libya wants to repay allies

TRIPOLI, Libya -- U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham said yesterday that Libyans who met a team of visiting senators had expressed gratitude and want to repay the international community that rallied around Moammar Gadhafi's opponents and played a key role in the dictator's defeat.

Graham, of South Carolina, traveled to Tripoli with three other Republican senators as part of the highest-profile American delegation since rebels, backed by NATO airstrikes that decimated Gadhafi's military, battled their way into the capital late last month and forced Gadhafi into hiding.

"There is a desire here by the Libyan people to make sure that those who helped will get paid back," Graham told journalists in the capital after he and the other senators -- John McCain of Arizona, Mark Kirk of Illinois and Marco Rubio of Florida -- toured Martyrs' Square, formerly named Green Square and the site of frequent Gadhafi speeches.

The four U.S. lawmakers also met with the head of the National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, and other high-ranking officials of the group that is now governing Libya.

The senators said American companies are hoping to tap into the wealth of oil and natural resources in Libya, which under Gadhafi long faced sanctions that prohibited much business.

"I think that American investors are more than eager to come invest here in Libya and we hope and believe that they will be given an opportunity to do so," McCain said.

He acknowledged, however, that it would be difficult for companies to get started until the country is completely secure. Gadhafi loyalists continue to put up a fierce resistance in three strongholds in central and southern Libya.