Libya has reached agreement with France on compensation for the 1989 bombing of a French airliner, Libyan leader Muammar Gadafy said last night, adding that the deal should allow the Lockerbie case to be closed, and that it marked a fresh start in relations with the West.
| This should be interesting... |
"The problem over the UTA case is over and the Lockerbie case is now behind us. We are opening a new page in our relations with the west," he said in a televised speech on the 34th anniversary of the coup that brought him to power. For the past 10 days, the families of the 170 victims of the French UTA DC-10, which exploded over the Niger desert on September 19 1989, have been negotiating for more money with a charitable fund headed by Col Gadafy's son Saif al-Islam. The need for a deal became urgent when Britain proposed ending the UN sanctions imposed on Libya for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing after Tripoli agreed earlier this month to pay $2.7bn (£1.8bn) to the families of the Lockerbie victims. Lifting the sanctions will clear the way for ending Libya's international isolation. France, a permanent member of the UN security council, threatened to use its veto to block the resolution unless Tripoli increased its compensation to the relatives of those who died on UTA flight 772. |