Rice, who is due to to meet the oil-rich nation's veteran leader and one-time international pariah Moamer Kadhafi, described her brief visit as "historic" and a sign the United States does not have permanent foes.

"Now that is not to say that everything has by any means been settled between the United States and Libya. There is a long way to go," she told reporters travelling with her.

"But I do believe that it has demonstrated that the United States doesn't have permanent enemies. It demonstrates that when countries are prepared to make strategic changes in direction the United States is prepared to respond."

Diplomats said Rice wanted Iran and North Korea to take note that they could benefit from rapprochement with the West, highlighting Libya's commitment to abandon nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programmes.

"It is a beginning, it is an opening, it is not, I think, the end of the story," Rice said.

The visit underscores the warming of ties following Kadhafi 's dramatic 2003 announcement he was abandoning weapons of mass destruction programmes -- a move which came just months after the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq.

It comes less than a month after the two governments reached an agreement on a plan to compensate US victims of Libyan attacks and Libyan victims of US reprisals.

Rice was holding talks with Foreign Minister Abdelrahman Mohammed Shalgam before joining Kadhafi for Iftar -- the meal marking the end of the day's Ramadan fast.

"I look forward to listening to the leader's world view," she said of the mercurial Kadhafi who has led the north African nation for almost four decades.

She said oil was a factor for her visit given Libya's vast reserves of oil and gas, adding that conflicts in Sudan and Chad could also be raised and possibly military cooperation.

US-Libya ties were suspended in 1981 when Washington put Kadhafi's regime on its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Libya, whose leader was once dubbed a "mad dog" by former US president Ronald Reagan, was forced even further into isolation after the bombing of a US airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988.

The White House said Rice's visit marked a "new chapter" and that cooperation could expand in areas including education and culture, commerce, science and technology, and security and human rights.

The last US secretary of state to visit was John Foster Dulles in 1953, who met King Idris -- the ruler ousted in a bloodless military coup led in 1969 by Kadhafi, now the Arab world's longest serving leader.

Richard Nixon was the last top-ranking US official to make the trip, as vice president in 1957.

Last year, Kadhafi proclaimed his love for "Leezza," telling Al-Jazeera television in an interview: "I support my darling black African woman. I admire and am very proud of the way she leans back and gives orders to the Arab leaders."

Kadhafi's December 2003 announcement followed secret talks with the United States and Britain and returned Libya to the international fold after years of isolation.

Last Saturday, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi visited to formally apologise for damage inflicted by Italy during the colonial era and to sign a five-billion-dollar investment deal by way of compensation.

Kadhafi -- who eschews the title president and prefers to be known as "brother leader and guide of the revolution" -- welcomed the end of his regime's long estrangement from Washington.

"The whole business of the conflict between Libya and the United States has been closed once and for all," he said this week. "There will be no more wars, raids or acts of terrorism."

But he also stressed that Libya was not desperate for US friendship, saying: "All we want is to be left alone."

Last month's compensation deal focuses on the families of the 270 victims of the Lockerbie bombing as well as victims of US air strikes on Tripoli and Benghazi in April 1986 in which 41 people were killed, including Kadhafi's adopted daughter.

However, the US-based Carnegie Endowment think-tank warned Washington against falling into business-as-usual relations with Libya.

"The regime remains opaque, unpredictable, and, buoyed by its petroleum wealth, is increasingly assertive in international negotiations."