US - Libyan near agreement on Lockerbie, paper says
Libya-USA, Politics, 1/24/2002

The US USA Today said on Wednesday that the US and Libya has approached an agreement that might be conducive to lifting the name of Libya from the American list of the countries which sponsor terrorism.

News reports said that the paper quoted high ranking American officials as saying that the agreement states that the Libyan government is to pay USD 6 billion as compensations for the bombardment of the Pan American plane in flight no 103 in 1988 over Lockeribie, which resulted in killing 27 persons most of the are Americans.

USA Today quoted one of the officials as saying that Libya understand the need to accept the responsibility over bombarding the plane.

Libyan officials told the paper that the final agreement with Washington will be made only after re-considering the appeal given by the Libyan Abdul Baset al-Miqrahi from Libya who was convicted to be involved in this case.

In this case, the Lockerbie, Abdul Baset al-Miqrahi, a former officer in the Libyan intelligence was convicted in January 2001. Yesterday the next appeal submitted by al-Miqrahi will be reconsidered. It is expected to last for three weeks.

The paper said that the US President George Bush is the one who will take the final decision to lift Libya's name from the list of the terrorism sponsor states. The US state department did not comment on this report.

Previous Stories:
  British daily: A secret deal between US, Britain, Libya; compensating Lockerbie victims   (1/22/2002)
  The US and Libya   (1/17/2002)
  American sanctions against Libya extended   (1/4/2002)
  Libya seeks to normalize relations with the US, EU   (9/5/2001)

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