Malta has released some €300 million in assets belonging to Libyan companies which had been frozen in line with EU and UN sanctions last year.

The sanctions were lifted a few weeks ago.

However, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said about €86 million in assets believed to have belonged to members of Muammar Gaddafi’s family were still frozen.

The assets had been frozen last August at the height of the Libyan crisis.

In February, Malta returned two Mirage F1 fighters which had been held on the island after their Libyan pilots defected at the start of the revolution.

The unfreezing of assets was a subject brought up during meetings between the Maltese government and the new Libyan authorities following the downfall of the Gaddafi regime.

Discussions between Malta and the Libyan transitional government are currently following another important line: the possibility of buying oil and gas from Libya at favourable rates.

Although the talks are still in their early stages, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech last weekend said the Libyans were showing strong signs of goodwill to strike a deal, perhaps due to the help Malta had extended during the Libyan crisis.