We will pay compensation over Lockerbie, says Libyan minister

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

The Libyan government said yesterday that it was ready to pay compensation for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and address UN demands that it accept responsibility for the attack, which killed 270 people.

Libya's Foreign Minister, Mohammed Abderrahman Shalgam, made the announcement after talks between the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, and the Foreign Office minister Mike O'Brien. He also said Libya was ready to normalise relations with the US.

Mr Shalgam said: "Regarding compensation, as a principle, yes, we are going to do something on that topic. Regarding responsibility, we are discussing this issue. We are ready to get rid of this obstacle." The minister's comments mark a sea-change in Libya's official position. While a team of lawyers and business leaders has been involved in discussions about compensation for the past 18 months, the Libya has until now expressed reluctance to make such payments.

On a visit to London in June, the Libyan parliament's foreign affairs secretary, Suleiman Sasi al-Shahoumi, said: "Compensation was not on the agenda of our negotiations and never was. We have never accepted the principle of paying compensation."

British officials said the comments were Libya's clearest declaration so far that it was prepared to comply with conditions for lifting all sanctions imposed over its role in the Lockerbie bombing, for which the Libyan agent Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was convicted last year at the specially established Scottish court in the Netherlands.

Mr O'Brien is the first British minister to visit Libya for 20 years and is believed to be the first yet to meet Colonel Gaddafi.Their meeting was held in a bedouin tent on the beach of Sirte and marked a day of intensive discussions, which also included five hours of talks with senior Libyan ministers. British officials described the meeting as a "thorough work-through of the bilateral issues", including co-operation against terrorism, as well as Lockerbie.

Mr O'Brien also made clear Britain's desire for "reassurance on issues of weapons of mass destruction".

Libya has signed most weapons treaties but not the Chemical Weapons Convention or the International Atomic Energy Agency protocol. Most UN sanctions have been suspended but US sanctions remain and will do, say American officials, until the Lockerbie bombing has been resolved.

Libya surprised many when it condemned the 11 September attacks and expressed sympathy with America. The US administration seemed divided over how to react.