Timing of payments holding up Libyan compensation agreement: ambassador

LONDON, Sept 4 (AFP) - A dispute over when the payments should be made is holding up the conclusion of a compensation deal between Libya and relatives of those killed in the bombing of a French airliner, the Libyan ambassador to London told AFP Thursday.

Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi announced a compensation deal with the relatives of the victims of the UTA DC-10 which blew up over Niger in 1989 on Sunday, thus effectively removing the last obstacle to the lifting of UN sanctions against his country.

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The deal was apparently along the lines of that reached with the families of the victims of the Lockerbie disaster.

But ambassador to London Mohammad Al-Zuai said on Thursday that Libya had offered to pay the money after sanctions imposed by the UN in 1982 were lifted but France was demanding the money be paid in advance, as was partly the case in the Lockerbie agreement.

"France has demanded the same guarantees as those Libya gave in the Lockerbie case ... and that has indisposed the Libyans," he said.

The demand came during a meeting between French Foreign Minister Dominque de Villepin and his Tunisian counterpart, Habib ben Yahia, the ambassador said.

"Libya wants to amke the payments as soon as sanctions are lifted but France wants the money deposited in a bank account beforehand," Zuai added.

"Kadhafi's word constitutes a guarantee," he insisted, referring to a telephone conversation between the Libyan leader and French President Jacques Chirac on Sunday.

Libya recently agreed to pay 2.7 billion dollars (2.4 billion euros) in compensation to the families of the 270 people killed when a Pan Am jet exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988, in an effort to get the international community to lift trade sanctions against Tripoli.

But France threatened to veto a British draft resolution lifting sanctions unless Tripoli agrees to pay the families of the 170 people who died in the bombing of the UTA DC10, also blamed on Libya, in light of the Lockerbie deal.

Libya initially termed the French demand "blackmail", but recently suggested that a compromise offer for the UTA families might be possible.

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