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

To: Tomas who wrote (1071)	5/5/1999 10:47:00 AM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2742

Report: Libyan, U.S. In Secret Talks To Improve Ties Wednesday May 5 9:02 AM ET MANAMA (Reuters) - Libyan and U.S. officials have held secret talks in Italy in a bid to turn a ''new page'' in relations between the two countries, a London-based Arab newspaper said Wednesday. ''The (newspaper) has learned that...Libya's ambassador to Italy had taken part in these talks, which also included officials from the State Department's Libyan affairs desk,'' the said the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, monitored in Bahrain. The paper said the ambassador had earlier had talks with British officials mediated by Egyptian officials. The newspaper did not say when the discussions took place. Talks between Libya and both the United States and Britain have become possible after Tripoli handed over for trial in the Netherlands two Libyans accused of blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. A total of 270 people were killed, 189 of them Americans. A Saudi newspaper last month quoted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi as saying that the handover of the suspects could lead to direct talks with the United States and Britain. ''The Libyan side was informed that bilateral and trilateral meetings will take place so we can sit together to discuss directly settling any problems,'' the Saudi Okaz daily quoted Gaddafi as saying. ''We had always been ready for such contacts even if there were wars between us, but America and Britain continued to refuse such contacts and we said to hell with it,'' he said. The U.N. Security Council will consider in July whether to permanently lift the sanctions on Libya. They include air, arms and partial oil-industry embargoes but not an oil ban. dailynews.yahoo.com _____________________________________________ Libya Seeks Closer Ties With U.S., Britain Wednesday May 5, 9:50 AM ET, By Abdelaziz Barrouhi TUNIS, Tunisia (Reuters) - A senior Libyan official Wednesday said the recent handover of two Lockerbie bombing suspects should lead to the resumption of the North African country's relations with the United States and Britain. ''We are ready for any bilateral meeting that would lead to the normalization of ties and the settlement of any problem that might be raised,'' Hassouna Chaouch, Libyan Deputy-Secretary (junior minister) for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation told Reuters in a telephone interview. Chaouch said there were already bilateral contacts between Libyan and British officials, but he was more evasive on possible contacts with U.S. officials. Links were severed more than 15 years ago. ''Contacts with the United States are now made possible, and we expect good from them. We are ready to establish full (diplomatic) ties with America,'' he said. He said that former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Herman Cohen had visited Libya two weeks ago for talks with Libyan officials. But asked about an Arab newspaper report Wednesday saying Libyan and U.S. officials recently held secret talks in Italy, Chaouch said: ''There are arrangements being made by the United Nations ahead of the Secretary General Kofi Annan report to the Security Council to lift the sanctions. Libya is dealing positively with them.'' Annan was due to prepare a report that would enable the Security Council to lift the sanctions imposed on Libya since 1992 by July. Diplomats said the report was being prepared in coordination with Libya, The U.S. and Britain. The sanctions were suspended last month after Libya handed over for trial in the Netherlands two men charged with the 1988 blowing up of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people. ''We had been looking with much positiveness to recent statements by U.S. and British officials showing readiness for dialogue,'' he said. ''These included the easing of U.S. sanctions that had been imposed on Libya, even though it was for internal reasons,'' Chaouch said in the first Libyan reaction to Washington's decision last week permitting food and medicine sales to Libya, Iran and Sudan. Chaouch said Libya believed that President Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, unlike their predecessors, were capable of having a new outlook on ties with Libya. Formal diplomatic ties had been severed between Washington and Tripoli since 1981. The United States, accusing Tripoli of supporting terrorism, froze Libya's assets and imposed a trade embargo against it in January 1986. Britain cut ties with Libya in 1984 after the shooting of British policewoman Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London during a protest against Gaddafi. dailynews.yahoo.com