BBC News | September 11: One year on

Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, once the chief villain in international terrorism as far as the West was concerned, has been making efforts to project a new image. The man who armed the IRA and whose agent has been found guilty of bombing the Pan Am plane over Lockerbie has been sending his son Seif around the world with a new message. Libya, it is said, is even telling rebels in Chechnya and the Philippines to give up.

Some of his visions are as strange as the man himself – one is that India and Pakistan (including Kashmir), Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh should unite.

Colonel Gaddafi has also been trying to resolve the remaining issues following the Lockerbie bombing and this might give a key to his new approach since he is hoping that sanctions will be fully lifted.

Gaddafi has always, in the final analysis, acted in his own interests and currently those interests require that he oppose international terrorism.