By Sue Pleming TRIPOLI, Sept 5 (Reuters) - It took 55 years for a U.S. secretary of state to return to Tripoli and when it happened on Friday there were no public handshakes with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi -- just small talk about the weather. Condoleezza Rice's first meeting with the man President Ronald Reagan once called the "mad dog of the Middle East" was an awkward and tentative encounter. Gaddafi stood at the end of a reception room to greet Rice at his heavily fortified compound -- the same one bombed by Reagan in 1986 -- and raised his hand to his chest in a traditional Arab welcome, telling Rice to move to the side. Gaddafi did not shake her hand, in line with Muslim tradition to avoid contact with females during the fasting time of Ramadan. Dressed in a white robe, with a green brooch in the shape of Africa and without his trademark dark glasses, Gaddafi then greeted all of Rice's senior staff, shaking hands with many of them, and finally motioned for Rice to sit down. "How are you?" asked Gaddafi quietly in Arabic, to which Rice, sitting forward with her hands clasped, replied she was doing very well and thanked him for his hospitality. As photographers and television cameramen jostled with reporters to record the historic meeting, Gaddafi engaged in small talk about the weather, asking Rice for a report on the latest hurricanes sweeping through the United States. In a room heavily laden with the smell of incense, Rice replied that Hurricane Gustav was not as "bad as expected" but that two more storms were on their way. "DARLING BLACK WOMAN" U.S. officials had been nervous that Gaddafi, often an unpredictable host, might embarrass Rice in their first meeting, but he chose a lower-key approach. Gaddafi has in the past been effusive in his admiration for Rice, saying in an interview with al Jazeera last year: "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." Usually foreign visitors to Gaddafi's compound are given a tour of the ruins and asked to sign a condolence book for the U.S. attack in 1986 in which his adopted daughter was killed. But there was no indication that Rice had been asked to either tour the ruins or sign the book, unlike former Russian President Vladimir Putin who wrote on a visit in April: "I bring my tribute to the victims. We share your grief." Rice and Gaddafi were later expected to share an Iftar dinner -- the meal that breaks the fast during Ramadan. Before she arrived for the meeting, reporters accompanying her were given copies of "The Green Book", outlining Gaddafi's philosophical doctrine and "The White Book" or "Isratine", in which he lays out a solution to the Middle East conflict. (Reporting by Sue Pleming; editing by William Maclean and Mark Trevelyan)
Evacuees board a school bus after returning to New Orleans, Louisiana following Hurricane Gustav September 5, 2008. REUTERS/Lee Celano (UNITED STATES) ...
