US fears France may delay Lockerbie settlement

US officials said yesterday they fear France's efforts to get a better deal from Libya for victims of the 1989 bombing of a French airliner will delay a $2.7 billion settlement of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke to French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin on Wednesday to raise US concerns that France not derail the tortuously negotiated Lockerbie deal, said one US official.

Lawyers for families of the 270 people who died in the mid-air bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, signed an agreement with Libya on Wednesday to set up an escrow account to hold the $2.7 billion, or up to $10 million per victim, in compensation Tripoli has agreed to pay.

The escrow agreement is the first step in a carefully choreographed arrangement under which Libya is expected to formally take responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing, possibly this week, and, as a result, UN sanctions against Tripoli would be lifted, possibly as early as next week.

France, however, has said that before UN sanctions are lifted it wants a better deal for the 170 people who died in the 1989 bombing of a French UTA airliner. Libya, which never admitted responsibility for that incident, paid about €30.5 million to settle the claim.

"The French may be attempting to delay the (Lockerbie) settlement and the reason for this relates to their dissatisfaction with their own settlement with the UTA flight," said one US official. "It's a curious spectacle to see. Essentially they are protesting as unfair their (own) deal.

"I don't think anybody has any sympathy at the UN for the French attitude. This is outrageous," the official said.

It appears the French government is under some domestic pressure to secure higher compensation for the UTA victims.