Tripoli accuses US of obstructing Lockerbie settlement

A spokesman for the Libyan Foreign Ministry on Tuesday denounced Washington's refusal of a proposal approved by a representative of UK families of victims of the Lockerbie air-crash incident in 1988, providing for trying the two Libyans suspected of being involved in the incident in a neutral country.

Libya considered statements made by spokesman of the White House Mike McCurry who rejected the proposal as "foiling all initiatives proposed by organizations and a violation of the activities carried out by the UN various organs."

It denounced "the persistence of the US administration to destroy all constructive efforts seeking to find out a solution of Lockerbie crisis."

Last week McCurry downplayed the proposal, saying, "The British family member who visited Libya is certainly entitled to his views, but our understanding is that they are not shared by the overwhelming majority of PanAm 103 family members."

"The Security Council reaffirmed as recently as March 6 that Libya must surrender those two suspects to either U.S. or U.K. authorities for trial... Those have been our views, those will remain our views, and they are unchanged," McCurry said.

Two representatives of families of Lockerbie victims, Jim Swire and Robert Black last week approved the Libyan proposal to try the two suspects in a neutral country according to Scottish law and before a court composed of five judges, with the court's chairman to be a Scottish judge appointed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair.