The agreement by Egypt and Libya to open diplomatic missions after 12 years of estrangement leaves Syria as the only Arab country still boycotting Egypt over its 1979 peace treaty with Israel.
President Hosni Mubarak and Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi agreed Tuesday to establish diplomatic bureaus in each other's country, Information Minister Safwat el Sherif told the semi-official Middle East News Agency.The decision "amounts to restoration of full diplomatic relations" between the neighboring countries because the Libyans establish what they call popular bureaus rather than embassies, said an informed source who requested anonymity.
The announcement followed nearly six hours of reconciliatory talks between Mubarak and Gadhafi in the Libyan Mediterranean city of Tobruk, about 187 miles west of Egypt's Marsa Matrouh, where the two leaders met Monday.
The two countries, whose relations were already strained, severed ties in December 1977 when Egypt's then-President Anwar Sadat traveled to Jerusalem to address the Israeli Knesset.
The decision Tuesday leaves Syria as the only Arab country still maintaining a boycott against Egypt because of its 1979 peace treaty with Israel. Gadhafi has refrained from visiting Cairo because of the presence of an Israeli Embassy there.
Besides restoring diplomatic ties, the two sides agreed to link Tobruk with the Egyptian-Libyan border town of Sallum by a passenger train, the Middle East News Agency reported. Sallum is nearly 75 miles east of Tobruk.
After the talks, Mubarak characterized his meeting with Gadhafi as "extremely positive. . . . There are no obstacles regarding bilateral Egyptian-Libyan cooperation."
The Egyptian information minister said the two leaders emphasized that a decision to reopen their joint borders, which went into effect earlier in the day, was agreed upon with the full understanding that each country would respect the security interests of its neighbor.
The comment was an apparent allusion to past allegations that the governments of radical Libya and moderate Egypt have plotted to overthrow each other, an Egyptian spokesman said.
Mubarak's trip to the Tobruk was the first visit by an Egyptian head of state to Libya in about 18 years.