The British prime minister, Mr Tony Blair, is to visit Libya tomorrow in a crucial step towards bringing Libya in from the diplomatic cold.
Mr Blair will meet Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi on the outskirts of Tripoli, a British government official told reporters.
The visit comes after US Assistant Secretary of State William Burns yesterday became the most senior American to visit since the 1969 coup.
Relations were restored after Col Gaddafi said Libya would dismantle its weapons of mass destruction, an announcement Mr Blair is credited with working behind the scenes to achieve.
His government has also formally accepted responsibility for the 1988 Lockerbie atrocity following the jailing of a Libyan agent for the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing which 270 people were killed.
Mr Blair will travel on to Libya after attending the state funeral for the 190 killed in the Madrid rail bombings.
But Mr Blair's decision to meet Col Gaddafi was questioned today by the Tory Party in the House of Commons.
Tory leader Mr Michael Howard said: "It is quite odd timing to go from a service which commemorates the victims of the biggest terrorist attack on Europe since Lockerbie, to go straight from there to Libya."
Mr Howard said: "I imagine it will cause considerable distress to the families of the victims of Lockerbie."
Mr John Prescott, standing in for Mr Blair at Prime Minister's Questions, told MPs it was right to engage in dialogue with Col Gaddafi.