"This year is quite different from last year," says Schwab

GENEVA, January 13 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – After several steps to return to the international fold, Libya will make its first appearance at a major economic forum in Davos later this month in more than two decades, organizers said Tuesday, January 13.

The annual World Economic Forum (WEF), slated for January 21-25, is expected to attract droves of businessmen and political leaders to discuss how peace can be achieved through security and prosperity – this year's theme, Agence France-Presse (AFP).

As a direct result of recent steps to improve its relations with the west, WEF invited Libyan Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem to attend the five-day forum, marking its first relationship with Libya for more than 20 years, a spokesperson said.

"This year is quite different from last year," said WEF founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab, referring to the previous forum which took place just weeks before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq last March.

"People are more optimistic and we have more positive signs on the geopolitical front," he told a news conference at WEF headquarters in Geneva.

"Libya, India-Pakistan, the capturing of Saddam Hussein and so on," he elaborated.

Recently, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi made a series of moves to re-establish diplomatic links with the U.S. and Europe, notably his dramatic announcement that his country was giving up its weapons programs.

Thirty-four heads of state or government are confirmed to attend the conference, including Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and Georgia president-elect Mikhail Saakashvili.

In addition, prominent international figures are also expected, including U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, new NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohammed ElBaradei.

CTBT Move Welcomed

Annan welcomed on Monday, January 12, Libya's ratification of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the Chemical Weapons Convention, urging all countries to follow suit.

His spokesman Fred Eckhard said Libya handed its instruments of ratification on January 6 and the U.N. legal department only made them official Monday.

The north African country further opened weapons facilities to visiting U.N. inspectors.

Libya had concluded a compensation deal for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing over Scotland and another with the families of the victims killed in the crash of a French UTA airliner in 1989 over Niger, removing major hurdles to its return to the world community.

Washington slapped political and economic sanctions on Tripoli after the bombing of the U.S. airliner.

The country was also under international sanctions since 1992 over the same case.