Historic visit to Libya by Pentagon chief Panetta

U.S. Sec. of Defense Leon Panetta greets members of the Libyan 

delegation on the tarmac during his arrival in Tripoli, Libya, 

Saturday, Dec., 17, 2011. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Pool)

 TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said “the torch of freedom” has passed to the Libyan people and he pledged during a historic visit Saturday to Tripoli that the United States will do all it can to help the country move toward democracy.

But he and his Libyan hosts acknowledged the threat of Islamic militants gaining ground in this period of political uncertainty following the ouster and death of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Panetta and Libyan leaders identified challenges for the government now forming, including how to gain control of the militias that overthrew Gadhafiduring an eight-month civil war.

“This will be a long and difficult transition, but I have confidence that you will succeed in realizing the dream of a representative government,”Panetta said during a news conference with Prime Minister Abdurrahim el-Keib.

“The torch of freedom that has passed throughout the centuries and now passes from nation to nation in the Middle East and North Africa burns brightly here in Libya. May it light your way to a future of peace, prosperity and freedom,” Panetta said.

While his visit was brief, Panetta made history as the first U.S. Pentagonchief to set foot on Libyan soil.

He evoked U.S. history, too, with a visit to the cemetery presumed to hold remains of U.S. sailors killed in Tripoli harbor in 1804. Their deaths were memorialized in the famous “shores of Tripoli” line in the Marine Corpshymn.

Both Panetta and al-Keeb expressed confidence that the fledgling government will be able to reach out to the militias and bring them together.

“We know how serious this issue is,” said al-Keeb, “We realize it is not matter of saying ‘OK, put down your arms, go back to work or do what you want to do.’ We realize that there are lots of things that we need to be organized.”

More broadly, Panetta said the revolts across the region represent a quest for sovereignty by the people, but they will all involve different approaches and challenges.

During meetings with the Libyan leaders, Panetta expressed concern about al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb militants gaining a foothold amid the chaos of an unfolding democracy. But they told him that the Libyan people will reject the terrorist group, said a senior defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions were private.

Panetta’s motorcade from the airport into the city provided views of the nation’s violent past and future promise — lush orange groves, carcasses of bombed buildings and charred and graffiti-covered compound once occupied by Gadhafi. Flying from rooftops were the green, black and red flags, adorned with a star and a crescent, belonging to the new government.

At one point, amid the graffiti splashed across the walls of Gadhafi’s former compound was a short comment in English: “Thanx US/UK.”

The visit also put the man who has led much of the U.S. terrorism fight over the past several years at the scene of one of the first American wars on terror, more than two centuries ago.

Panetta went to what historians believe is the gravesite of as many as 13 U.S. sailors killed in 1804, when the Navy ship Intrepid exploded while slipping into Tripoli harbor to attack pirate ships that had captured an American frigate.