French President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed Monday that he would receive Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi in Paris, saying Tripoli's moves on issues like nuclear arms, deserved diplomatic recognition.
"I will meet with Colonel Kadhafi. I see no reason not to meet with Kadhafi," Sarkozy said after talks here with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"If I do not meet him, if we do not talk with countries that are becoming more respectable, what can we say to Iran and North Korea?" the French president said.
France has invited Kadhafi to visit before the end of the year, without giving a date. Press reports said the visit was planned for December.
Sarkozy said Libya had abandoned three "appalling" approaches by ending its quest for nuclear weapons, renouncing its support of terrorism and freeing the Bulgarian medics whom it had accused of infecting children with the HIV/AIDS virus.
