Sarko on the Defensive

"Today, France is welcoming a head of state who decided definitively to renounce weapons of mass destruction," Sarkozy told journalists after a one-hour meeting with Gadhafi at the Elysee Palace. "France is welcoming a head of state who definitively renounced terrorism. A head of state who has compensated the victims" of Libyan state-sponsored terrorist acts.

The French president added that Libya wanted to become a full-fledged member of the international community.

"It is my deepest conviction that France must speak with all those who want to be integrated in the international community," he said.

Apparently unfazed by the controversy that preceded his arrival in Paris Monday afternoon, a smiling Gadhafi shook hands with Sarkozy and waved to journalists.

Gadhafi's first official visit to France in 34 years has provoked an angry debate in France, with even members of Sarkozy's government openly critical of the visit.

In an interview published Monday in the daily Le Parisien, Junior Minister for Human Rights Rama Yade fiercely criticized the date of the visit, which begins on International Human Rights Day, and said she would not take part in the state dinner Sarkozy was hosting for Gadhafi later Monday.

Human rights minister scolded by Sarkozy

"The choice of this is a strong symbol, I would even say scandalously strong," Yade told the daily. "Colonel Gadhafi must understand that our country is not a doormat on which a leader, terrorist or not, can clean his bloody feet of their infamy."

Her comments apparently displeased Sarkozy. Yade was summoned to the Elysee Palace and chided for her frankness. She said after the meeting with the president that her comments had been taken out of context and "caricatured" and that she was not, "in principle," against Gadhafi's visit.

However, the French people apparently agree with Yade's original stance. According to a poll made public on Monday by the weekly Paris Match, nearly two of three French adults are opposed to Gadhafi's visit.

Foreign minister says trusting Libya is a risk

Yade also received backing for her comments from Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, a well-known campaigner for human rights. "She was right to speak as she did," Kouchner told France Inter radio on Monday.

Kouchner also appeared to distance himself from the visit, adding that he was "resigned" to Gadhafi coming to France and hoped that it would help speed up the "evolution" in Libya.

In an opinion piece published Monday in the daily La Croix, Kouchner described the high-wire act Gadhafi's visit has forced him -- and France -- to perform.

"No question of forgetting the name of the victims imputed to him," he said. "No question of forgetting their sufferings. Gadhafi has abandoned weapons of mass destruction and renounced terrorism for his country. Should we believe him and renew relations with Libya? It's a risk, but we will keep our eyes open."

Ex-presidential candidates weigh in with criticism

Meanwhile, the centrist former presidential candidate Francois Bayrou told RMC radio on Monday that the Libyan leader was a "bloody dictator" and that he would not take part in the diplomatic reception for him.

On Sunday, former Socialist Party presidential candidate Segolene Royal said Sarkozy was "trampling on France's human rights tradition," and told Canal Plus television that it was "heinous, shocking and even unacceptable" that France gave backing to "a system of torture in prison."

Apparently shaken by the controversy, Sarkozy also defended his own human rights record, saying that he and his government had liberated the Bulgarian nurses who had been sentenced to death by a Libyan court for infecting children with AIDS.

"France liberated them," Sarkozy said. "I demanded it and I obtained it."

He also noted that he was the only French president to openly demand, at a press conference in Beijing, that China outlaw the death penalty.

Sarkozy noted that Gadhafi would sign contracts later Monday totaling about 10 billion euros ($14.6 billion). These deals would involve a nuclear reactor for a seawater desalinization plant, a variety of armaments and other economic contracts, the French president said.