Kadafi, Lawmakers Defiant in Face of World’s Censure : Libya: Despite angry rhetoric about ‘evil forces’ and the Lockerbie issue, the government could be laying groundwork for ties to the West.

This country’s General People’s Congress struck a defiant tone Saturday against handing over for trial two men accused in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing, while leader Moammar Kadafi, facing one of the most serious crises in his 23 years of rule, lashed out at a “bankrupt and weak” international order.

Meeting to debate Libya’s response to the standoff over the accused bombers in the face of threats of more international sanctions, Congress leaders stressed Libya’s right to deny extradition of the two accused men and criticized the United States for trying “to harness the entire world.”

Kadafi, looking haggard and tired, also struck out at the international community.

“The prevailing language now is that of military option, embargo, siege and economic boycott. . . . We see a map of the world which is laughable and ridiculous, and should the world continue in this manner, the globe will be turned into a colossal prison,” he told an alternative environmental conference convened in his hometown of Sirte on Friday night.

He said the U.N. Security Council’s two-month-old embargo against Libya has created “an international prison zone in North Africa” like others in Iraq and the Balkans, adding, “The present forces of evil can never create a new world order, and if these evil forces are allowed to do anything of the kind, they will only develop their evil methods.”

Kadafi’s remarks were reported on Libyan state radio. Witnesses said he appeared exhausted and at one point in the middle of his speech walked off the stage for several moments.

The convening of the Congress comes at a moment when Kadafi is under great pressure from overseas and here at home, where there are signs that many Libyans favor ending Libya’s defiant isolation and forging better ties with the West.

In an unusual series of special editions printed during the past four days, Al Jamahiriya, the organ of Libya’s revolutionary committees that normally comes out once a week, has urged Kadafi to abandon the cause of Arab nationalism and look after Libya’s own interests, which it said lie with the West.

“We need the technological development of the West. We urgently need civilian and military technology; we badly need to set up real projects which will benefit us using good Western technology, not useless Arab technology,” Al Jamahiriya said in a special Saturday edition. “We are the West.”

Such pronouncements are unheard of in Libya, which normally preaches anti-Westernism as a matter of national principle and has never admitted suffering under longstanding trade and technology embargoes imposed by the United States.

But analysts here said it appeared that Kadafi may be laying the groundwork for an attempted rapprochement with the West, which he would be able to say was forced on him by popular sentiment.

In his Friday night speech, his first public address since the new public discussion in Libya began last week, Kadafi relied on most of his old rhetoric, accusing the West of imperialism, even blaming imperialism--before his audience of environmentalists--for the destruction of the ozone layer and the creation of “false democracies.”

“All existing parliaments . . . are a dead instrument which failed to represent the voters,” he said, clearly aiming his remarks at the growing unrest against his regime, which most diplomats say has the support of less than 20% of the population.

“All elections in the world are rigged. Only the rich win elections. It is the rich who are ruling the world, polluting the environment, manufacturing and buying weapons. It is the rich who are creating slaves,” Kadafi said.

Echoing Kadafi’s tone, the secretary general of the Congress, Abdulrazeg Sausaa, accused the United States of trying “to act as the policeman of the world.”

“The only problem between us and the United States is that we want to be free on our own land and free to take our own decisions,” he said in opening the Congress’ three-day annual session, which is expected to make some determination of Libya’s response to U.S. and British demands that two Libyans be extradited for trial in the Lockerbie disaster.

Sausaa repeated Libya’s offer to try the two before an international tribunal in Tripoli or to hand them over to a neutral third country for trial. He accused the United Nations of violating international law by supporting the extradition demands in the absence of any formal treaty with the United States or Britain.

“Britain and the U.S. and France are leading a crusaders’ war against the Arabs and the Muslims. It is a fact which has been glaringly obvious,” he said.

But Sausaa left the door open for the kind of resolution that many diplomats and analysts here believe is inevitable if Libya wants to avoid the possible further sanctions, such as a boycott of its oil exports. “We are ready to cooperate for the sake of reaching a just and honorable solution, and we will support any effort along those lines,” he said.

In its opening session, the People’s Congress took care to re-emphasize Libya’s commitment to a united Arab world, “from the (Persian) Gulf to the sea,” softening the harsh anti-Arab rhetoric that has appeared in recent days in the official press.

But the press took a decidedly different tone, criticizing Libya’s open-border policy with Arab states, which has allowed millions of Egyptians, Tunisians and Moroccans to flood into Libya and bring cheap Arab-manufactured goods into its market.

In a message clearly aimed toward Arab states that supported the Security Council’s air traffic and military embargo of Libya, Al Jamahiriya said Saturday, “Yes to national unity, yes to borders and gates and border guards, yes to customs posts, because we do not need rotten goods, we do not need a black currency market.”

Arab states have been slow to react. The government has said it is not responsible for Al Jamahiriya’s editorials, even though most analysts believe Kadafi had a hand in writing them.

“They tell us this is not an official government statement,” one Arab diplomat said. “They say, ‘This is a statement in a newspaper, this is a revolutionary republic, and everyone can say his opinion, this is opposition.’ ”

He raised his eyebrows and smiled. “I think Kadafi is preparing the way for the people to say we must have better relations with the West so I submit to the wish of the people.”

Indeed, a letter in Saturday’s paper hinted at just such a prospect. A reader urged Kadafi to “intervene personally” to stop the attacks against him that have appeared in the press “because they are destroying everything.”

The writer then added a telling footnote: “Unless what is happening is on your orders and with your agreement.”