Col Gaddafi writing to President Obama will raise some hopes in London and Washington that the pressure created by nearly three weeks of attacks on his forces is beginning to tell
By Alex Spillius, Washington
US officials said that in the rambling, three-page letter the Libyan leader referred to the US president as "our son", and said that his country had been hurt more morally than physically by the bombings. He also repeated his claim that his domestic enemies were members of al-Qaeda.
Referring to the new background role of the US air force, Jana, the official Libyan news agency, said that "the leader of the revolution [Gaddafi] sent on Wednesday a message to US president Barack Obama after the United States withdrew from the aggressive, colonialist coalition crusading against Libya".
Read moreThe White House responded that Col Gaddafi "should be judged not on his words, but his actions in ending violence against civilians".
The Libyan leader has written to Mr Obama before the current crisis, but his new missive will raise some hopes in London and Washington that the pressure created by nearly three weeks of attacks on his forces is beginning to tell.
It came as a former US congressman with prior dealings with Col Gaddafi arrived in Tripoli on a private mission seeking a peace deal that would include the Libyan’s departure from the country.
Curt Weldon, a Republican representative from Pennsylvania from 1987 to 2007, said in a New York Times column that he was in Libya as the leader of a small private delegation at the invitation of Col Gaddafi’s chief of staff.
"Our purpose is to meet with Colonel Gaddafi and persuade him to step aside," he said.
A senior US official in Washington said meanwhile the Obama administration was aware of the mission but stressed that Mr Weldon was "traveling in a private capacity".
Mr Weldon travelled to Libya in 2004 as the head of a congressional delegation expressing support for Col Gaddafi’s decision to give up nuclear weapons.
© The Telegraph Group London 2011
