Libya's Terror Legacy Leads Congress to Slow Pursuit of Ties.

The improved ties President George W. Bush promised Muammar Qaddafi for renouncing his nuclear ambitions have developed too slowly for U.S. companies eager to tap Africa's largest oil reserves — and too fast for lawmakers wary of Libya's legacy of terrorism.

American companies are losing business because European leaders engage Qaddafi while their U.S. counterparts have held back, said David Goldwyn, head of the U.S.-Libya Business Association, founded by Occidental Petroleum Corp. and other energy companies. Meanwhile, lawmakers from New York and New Jersey, whose constituents were among the victims of Libyan- sponsored terrorism, are blocking a new U.S. ambassador and embassy in Tripoli. [...]

Stephen Morrison, a former State Department official who runs the Africa program at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies, offered an alternative explanation for the European successes.

Those companies have a natural advantage because of their geographic proximity and the fact that Libya's economic ties with Europe were never scaled back as completely as they were with the U.S., he said.

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