"The problem over the UTA case is over and the Lockerbie case is now behind us,” Kaddafi

TRIPOLI, September 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Libyan leader Moammar Kadhafi said on Sunday, August 31, that a deal was struck to increase compensation for the bombing of a French airliner bombing over Niger in 1989, removing the last obstacle to the lifting of U.N. sanctions against his country.

"The problem over the UTA case is over and the Lockerbie case is now behind us. We are opening a new page in our relations with the West," said Kadhafi in a televised speech on the anniversary of a coup that brought him to power in 1969.

Kadhafi said he had received a telephone call Sunday from French President Jacques Chirac.

"President Chirac called me earlier ... and we agreed to come to an understanding under the Kadhafi Foundation" to resolve the question of compensation, he was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying.

The charity foundation is headed by Kadhafi's son Seif al-Islam, which negotiated the accord with the victims' families.

"The money is of little importance to us, we have our dignity," he said.

Kadhafi said that a number of foreign government officials had sought to persuade him recently to reached a settlement with France, including Tunisian President Zine el Abidine ben Ali and Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

‘Compromise’

The Kadhafi Foundation said in a statement it had reached the compromise after "numerous meetings and negotiations over the past year" with victims' families.

The foundation stressed that it had "no link with the Libyan state", saying the agreement was "with only the families of the victims of the French plane" and that it was "not related to what is going on at the U.N. concerning the lifting of sanctions" clamped on Libya since 1992.

Praising President Chirac, the statement said the agreement would also help find a solution to the problem of six Libyans handed sentences in absentia by a French court for their part in the downing of the UTA airliner.

The Libyan leader launched into a long explanation of Libya's position in his television appearance, assuring that Tripoli was not involved with the UTA or Lockerbie bombings.

"France knows that it does not have the right to return to this affair, the dossier is closed," he said.

"But President Chirac called me, he recalled that when he was prime minister in 1986 he banned the American aircraft that were going to bomb Libya from overflying France... and asked me to find a solution,” he said.

‘Basis’

"It's a question of fairness," de Villepin

In the meanwhile, the French government confirmed that Libya had agreed to pay Lockerbie-style compensation for the 1989 bombing of a French airline over Niger, a move expected to pave the way for the lifting of United Nations sanctions against Tripoli.

"It (the deal) just needs finalizing, which will happen in the next few hours," French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told French radio.

Libya agreed to pay 2.7 billion dollars (2.4 billion euros) in compensation to the families of people killed when a Pan Am jet exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988, in a bid to have the U.N. trade sanctions lifted.

But France threatened to block a U.N. resolution abolishing the sanctions unless Tripoli agreed to pay a similar level of compensation to the families of the 170 people who died in the UTA bombing, also blamed on Libya.

"It's a question of fairness," de Villepin explained on Monday.

Families of the French airliner’s victims returned empty-handed from Tripoli last week, where they had flown on a French government aircraft hoping to strike a deal with Libya to pay additional compensation for the 1989 bombing of the UTA airliner.

Family representatives returned to Tripoli on Saturday to resume compensation talks, before flying out to Paris late Sunday.

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