ROME | Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is hoping the signing Saturday of a treaty of friendship with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi will secure the North African strongman’s cooperation in his crackdown against rising immigration from Africa and Eastern Europe.
Mr. Berlusconi visited the Libyan port of Benghazi on Saturday to sign the friendship and economic-development treaty with Libya that included a formal pledge that Italian engineers will build the long-sought coastal highway in Italy’s former colony, officials said.
“The accord will provide for $200 million a year over the next 25 years through investments in infrastructure projects in Libya,” Mr. Berlusconi said.
“It is my duty, as a head of government, to express to you in the name of the Italian people our regret and apologies for the deep wounds that we have caused you,” he said.
Mr. Berlusconi was also expected to try and persuade Col. Gadhafi to prevent thousands of men, women and children from leaving Libya’s coastline on tiny craft each year bound for Italy’s southern coast, the Foreign Ministry said.
But the Tripoli government had long indicated it would only will crack down on the illegal emigration if Italy met long-standing Libyan demands for financial reparations.
Col. Gadhafi maintains Rome owes Libya reparations for damages the Arab country suffered under Italian colonial rule from 1911 to 1943. The Libyan leader had long reminded Italian officials of pledges made by past Italian governments to make major infrastructure investments in Libya, Italian diplomats say.
The $5 billion agreement signed Saturday will also cover cooperation on the fight against illegal immigration, which Mr. Berlusconi termed a battle “against slave traders.”
The issue was highlighted Wednesday when a group of eight Sudanese and Eritreans were rescued by Maltese fishermen between Libya and Sicily. The survivors told the United Nations High Commission for Refugees that as many as 71 other people were thrown into the sea when a gale overturned a crowded boat after they set off for the small Italian island of Lampedusa, south of Sicily, from the Libyan port of Zuwarah, about 180 miles away.
“If this toll is confirmed, this tragedy will have to be added to a list that is already far too long,” said Neil Fazon, the UNHCR representative on Malta.
“Even though they are aware of these tragedies, these desperate people continue to try to make the voyage to Europe,” Mr. Fazon said. “This shows these people need to be helped.”
Maltese and Italian rescue aircraft searched for the missing, thought to have included three pregnant women, but found no immediate trace of them, UNHCR spokeswoman Linda Boldrini said in Malta on Thursday. Later in the day, two German Puma helicopters attached to an EU mission on Malta spotted three bodies floating in the sea, the Italian news agency ANSA said. A Maltese navy motorboat recovered two of the three bodies, ANSA added.
Zuwarah has become a center for human smuggling in recent years, attracting emigrants who travel to Libya from all over Africa to pay for the perilous passage to Italy on often overcrowded and dilapidated boats.
Rome has offered to help the Libyan navy to curb the smuggling, but Tripoli has been reluctant to cooperate, Italian officials say. Mr. Berlusconi traveled to Tripoli in June to discuss with Col. Gadhafi the implementation of a December accord on joint maritime patrols to curtail the flow of illegal immigrants.
Interior Minister Roberto Maroni earlier this month said that the number of illegal immigrants entering Italy through the first seven months of the year had doubled compared with the same time last year.
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Silvio Berlusconi made the deal with his Libyan counterpart 
The government of Italy has agreed to pay Libya US$5 billion as compensation for its occupation of the country from 1911 to 1943. The agreement was reached between the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and Baghdadi Mahmudi, Berlusconi's Libyan counterpart.

"It is a material and emotional recognition of the mistakes that our country has done to yours during the colonial era," said Berlusconi after arriving in Libya. "This agreement opens the path to further cooperation."

"The accord will provide for $200 million a year over the next 25 years through investments in infrastructure projects in Libya," Berlusconi continued. "It is my duty, as a head of government, to express to you in the name of the Italian people our regret and apologies for the deep wounds that we have caused you."

In return for providing compensation, Italy has asked that Libya attempts to reduce the number of immigrants illegally moving from Libya to Italy.

As a result of the deal, the Libyan government has named August 30 "Libyan-Italian Friendship Day".

The deal has also made some people ask if the United Kingdom should provide compensation to Nigeria for it's colonisation of the country. 

Dr. Eyimofe Atake from the Senior Advocate of Nigeria commented on this issue: "To be able to answer that question, one needs to know exactly why compensation was paid and the circumstances in which compensation was paid. One needs to know the fact of the case between the Italians and the Libyans and how the issue for the payment of compensation arose. No two cases are necessarily similar, so in the absence of the facts and circumstances that led to the payment of compensation, it will be totally speculative to say if Nigeria could ask for compensation or be paid compensation by Britain."

"In any event, under international law, Britain and Italy are separate and distinct states. They are sovereign states. Consequently, the British government is not bound by the acts of the Italian government. The decision of the Italian government is personal to them based on their peculiar circumstance and facts, which have nothing to do with the British government and the Nigerian government," Atake continued.