An international migration official says more than 200 people are believed dead as more bodies washed ashore in Libya after their overcrowded boat with illegal migrants capsized in stormy Mediterranean waters.

Libya has asked oil companies to slash production by 270,000 barrels per day from Jan. 1, the latest such reduction by an OPEC member as the producer group struggles to boost faltering oil prices.

Libya’s oil chief says his country will cut production _ starting in January _ by almost 20,000 barrels per day more than Libya’s OPEC quota.

A security official says a shootout between Lebanese soldiers and a group of gunmen in the northern port city of Tripoli has left one of the gunmen dead and two wounded.

The White House says President Bush called Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi (guhd-AWF-fee) to thank him for settling a long-standing dispute between Washington and Tripoli over terrorist attacks in the 1980s.

Libya has paid $1.5 billion into a fund to compensate the families of American victims of Libyan-linked terror attacks in the 1980s, clearing a final hurdle to full normalization of ties between Washington and Tripoli, the State Department said Friday.

An official with the charitable organization of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s son says the group helped secure the release of a political prisoner for health reasons.

Libya said Thursday it has halted oil shipments to Switzerland, three months after the arrest of Moammar Gadhafi’s son in Geneva sparked a diplomatic crisis between the two countries.

Libya has started making payments into a fund to compensate the families of American victims of Libyan-linked terror attacks in the 1980s, another step in the full normalization of long-strained ties between Washington and Tripoli, a senior U.S. official

The United States has opened a trade office in Libya, the latest in a concerted push to normalize relations after three decades of confrontation and sanctions.