Powell: Libya will be on the terrorism list despite its concessions

The US Secretary of State Colin Powell announced that Libya will remain on the list of it called state sponsors of terrorism, despite its admission to shoulder the responsibility over the Lockerbie incident of 1988.

Powell said, after Tripoli accepted shouldering the responsibility of the explosion and paying compensations, his country will not oppose lifting UN sanctions as an appreciation of this shift, but other officials stressed that Washington will keep its sanctions against Libya "with all its force."

However, Tripoli hopes that this step will end the state of "coolness" prevailing relations with Washington. The deputy secretary of the Libyan people's committee for foreign relations Hasouna al-Shawish said he hopes for the foundation of improved relations with the USA similar to the relations with Britain.

Al-Shawish added "we have schedules and meetings with American officials and we will deal with all pending issues through dialogue and understanding, and we have the joint ability in both sides to overcome all impediments and obstacles."

However, the British position of this new development was different. To this effect, British diplomats said they will today ( Monday) debate a draft resolution at the UN Security Council to lift the sanctions from Tripoli after it admitted responsibility for the Lockerbie incident.