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Gold/Mining/Energy : Lundin Oil (LOILY, LOILB Sweden) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tomas who wrote (873)	12/4/1998 11:03:00 AM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2742

Libya: Kofi Annan May Have Got Assurances - Diplomat By Rawhi Abeidoh Friday December 4 TUNIS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan may have received assurances from Libya for a deal that would set in train the trial of two Libyan suspects in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, a senior North African diplomat said Friday. Annan said Thursday he would go to Libya Saturday for talks with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on the surrender of the two suspects. ''I am going to try to settle this problem once and for all,'' Annan told reporters after meeting Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who met Gaddafi on the Lockerbie issue in October. ''I have the impression that he has got some assurances from the Libyans,'' the diplomat told Reuters. ''There were one or two outstanding points, and if Annan decided to go ahead with the trip to Libya that means that he is hopeful they will be overcome,'' he said. ''We understand also that the Libyans want to hand over the two suspects to an international authority that is independent of the other parties,'' he added referring to the United States and Britain. ''This has a symbolic value for the Libyans.'' News of the trip brought optimism from the United States and Britain, although diplomats tempered this with caution, citing Gaddafi's unpredictably. A senior U.S. official said Thursday Washington hoped the meeting would result in the handover of the two suspects. But Ambassador Nancy Soderberg, speaking for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said she did not know what the outcome of Annan's session with Gaddafi would be and how firm his assurances were from Tripoli. ''We would expect a meeting between the secretary-general and Libyan officials to produce a handover of the suspects,'' she said. ''We expect that to be the purpose of his travel to Libya.'' Annan is due to fly to Sirte, a coastal city 400 km (250 miles) east of the Libyan capital, where Gaddafi usually entertains his guests, after the Security Council sanctions committee approved a waiver for the trip, diplomats said. U.N. sources said the U.N. chief would go Friday to the Tunisian island resort of Djerba, some 100 km (60 miles) north of the Libyan border. He would fly to Sirte Saturday morning and return to Djerba on the same day, they added. Libya has been under U.N. sanctions, including a flight ban, since 1992 for its refusal to hand over the suspects accused by the United States and Britain of blowing up a U.S. airliner. The bombing killed 270 people when Pan Am flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, 10 years ago this month. Libya has agreed to put the two nationals -- Abdel Basset Ali Mohammed al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah -- on trial in the Netherlands. But it has refused British and U.S. demands that they serve their sentence in Scotland if convicted. Britain welcomed Annan's announcement that he would visit Libya. But it made clear that a U.S.-British plan to try the Libyan suspects before a special court of Scottish judges in the Netherlands was non-negotiable. A former air force base in the Netherlands has been set aside for the trial. ''Naturally we welcome efforts to implement the U.N. Security Council resolution (on handing over the suspects). We hope the secretary-general can persuade Gaddafi to reply promptly so justice can be done,'' said a British Foreign Office spokesman. ''Kofi Annan fully recognizes that the U.S.-British plan is non-negotiable...the best we can hope for from Saturday's meeting is official notification that Gaddafi is prepared to hand over the suspects.'' Western diplomats had said Annan would not go to Libya unless he had been assured Gaddafi had agreed to surrender the suspects for trial. But in private, British officials are reluctant to express optimism about Annan's chances of success. ''It is no use trying to figure out what could happen. It is very hard to predict what Gaddafi might do,'' one said. dailynews.yahoo.com