US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Jeffrey D Feltman in Tripoli on Monday restated the apology of the US government to Libya for comments made by the spokesperson for the US Department of State late February.

Feltman deplored the comments during his meeting in Tripoli Monday with the Secretary of the General People's Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation, Mousa Kousa.

Jeffrey said during the meeting with Kousa that his visit was according to the instruction by Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton as to reemphasize the declared apology, the Libyan news agency JANA reported. According to JANA, Feltman praised Libya's acceptance of such apology in the statement that was issued by the GPC for Foreign Liaison afterwards.

The US official also expressed his country's willingness to strengthen bilateral cooperation with Libya on political, security, economic, scientific, technical fields as well as in the area of nuclear medicine, through the establishment of a regional nuclear medicine centre in Libya.

"I am happy about the relations between Libya and the United States and these are growing step by step," Feltman told reporters at a briefing after his talks with Kousa.

He said Tripoli and Washington were planning to sign a commercial agreement in the next few weeks to follow up on the visit last month of an official US trade mission, the first since diplomatic relations were restored in 2004.

Feltman also said he used his meetings with Libyan officials to explain the US position on the Middle East peace process, Yemen and Iraq before a summit of the Arab League which Libya will be hosting later this month.