Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said this morning that the issue over oil exploration in the waters between Libya and Malta will be raised with the Libyan authorities at the appropriate time.

Speaking at the Times to debate conference held at the Intercontinental this morning, Dr Gonzi said the subject was broached with the leaders of the new Libyan government but they had not gone into detail at this stage.

Oil exploration represented a very black chapter of Malta-Libya relations, culminating when Muammar Gaddafi sent gunboats to stop Maltese oil exploration.

"I hope the future will present us an opportunity to redress, change and fix this. These are pleasures yet to come. Everything has its time," Dr Gonzi said.

"I expect to have an open, clear, friendly solution, not just discussions, at political level, with a country that has found us shoulder to shoulder in difficult times. This is not payback at all, this is an injustice made years ago which we need to see remedied."

Mohammed Sayeh, speaking for the Libyan Transitional National Council, said everything would be resolved on the basis of friendship and talks between professionals.

"Everything would be solved in a correct way," he said adding that experts in this field would sit together and discuss the legal issues.