UN asked to lift Libya sanctions

Britain asked the Security Council yesterday to end UN sanctions on Libya, but France said the book could not be closed on the 1988 Lockerbie bombing until the North African state offered more money for victims of a 1989 attack on a French airliner.

British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said he sent the council a draft resolution to lift the sanctions imposed on Libya after the midair bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland.

Diplomats said it could come up for discussion as early as tomorrow.

But France, which has veto power in the 15-nation Security Council, said the sanctions could not be lifted until its own demands on the Tripoli government were resolved.

In a deal painstakingly negotiated with Britain and the United States, Libya on Friday accepted responsibility for the Pan Am bombing and agreed to pay an expected $2.7 billion in compensation - enough to provide up to $10 million to the families of each of the 270 people killed in the attack.

That prompted a last-minute drive by Paris to pressure Libya for more money for the 170 victims of the September 1989 downing of a jet from the now-defunct UTA French airline over the West African state of Niger.

A Paris court found six Libyans guilty in absentia for the UTA bombing. Libya never officially accepted blame but turned over roughly €30.5 million in compensation, leading to payouts of at most $33,780 per victim, according to a group representing the victims' families.

Council diplomats said a vote on the British text could not be scheduled in any case until Libya put the Lockerbie money into a special escrow account, a step that could come as early as tomorrow but may slip later in the week.

The French foreign ministry, meanwhile, said it was making "important progress" in talks with Libya on the UTA victims, 65 of whom were French.

It declined to say if it would use its Security Council veto to help get its way, as Washington has said it plans to do. But the foreign ministry said a deal was "an indispensable condition" for the sanctions to be lifted.

US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Washington hoped nothing would slow the Lockerbie settlement, "but of course we have great sympathy with the French families and others who lost people on the UTA flight."

Diplomats said Paris was under tremendous domestic pressure to come up with something more for the UTA victims. But they doubted it would go so far as to use its veto.

"The French are talking as tough as they possibly can. But that may be a bluff to get something out of the Libyans," said one council diplomat.

Libyan Foreign Minister Mohamed Abderrhmane Chalgam ruled out paying more over the weekend, but both sides could gain from a last-minute compromise, diplomats said.

France would avoid a messy confrontation with both the United States and Libya, and Libya would be nearer to putting Lockerbie behind it, they said.

Lifting the UN sanctions would have only a symbolic impact as they were suspended in 1999 after Libya turned over two suspects for trial in connection with the Pan Am bombing.

One, a Libyan intelligence agent, was later convicted of the crime in 2001, while the second was acquitted.

Separate US sanctions include a ban on Libyan oil sales to the United States, which Washington has vowed to keep in force.