WASHINGTON,
June 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Regardless of the fact that
the Libyan government has firmly denied making any sort of concrete
settlement proposal and still maintains it had nothing to do with the
December 21, 1988 bombing, a U.S. official briefed Friday families of
victims killed in the 1988 crash of Pan Am Flight No. 103 on recent
discussions about a settlement with Libya.
Participants
said Assistant Secretary of State for Middle Eastern Affairs William
Burns stressed to about 20 family members that Washington continues to
insist Libya comply with all conditions set by the United Nations for
an end to sanctions, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
"It
was a good meeting," participant Dan Cohen said.
The
meeting came a day after Burns met British and Libyan officials in
London to discuss a settlement of the case.
Tripoli
has yet to meet United Nations demands that it accepts responsibility
for the incident that took place in Lockerbie, Scotland in December
1988, or to provide compensation to their families, AFP said.
Cohen
said many families were unhappy with Libya's reported offer of 2.7
billion dollars conditioned on the lifting of both UN and U.S.
sanctions on Tripoli, AFP said.
"This
idea that lawyers are going to meet in Paris and wrap things up is
highly unrealistic, there is much work to be done on a whole variety
of areas," he said.
After
Libya handed over two suspects to be judged by a Scottish court that
was opened in the Netherlands, the UN sanctions were suspended but not
lifted. The U.S. sanctions remain intact.
Abdel
Basset Ali al-Megrahi was found guilty in January 2001 and sentenced
to life imprisonment. The second suspect, Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, 44,
was found innocent and was acquitted