Arab league chief visits london for discussions over Lockerbie issue

Secretary general of the Arab League, Esmat Abdul Meguid, started Sunday a five-day visit to London to examine with British officials regional issues, including the Lockerbie crisis following the International Court of Justice's recent ruling that it is competent to examine the case.

Before leaving Cairo, where the Arab League is headquartered, Abdul Meguid said he will meet a number of British officials. Sources close to the pan-arab organization said the secretary general's talks are expected to lead to the creation next September of an arab league council that will take measures to lift sanctions imposed on Libya, in implementation of a recommendation of the Organization of African Unity which decided at its summit last week to ignore some of the UN sanctions imposed on Libya.

The African heads of state and government which met in Burkina Faso appealed to the U.N. Security Council to suspend all the sanctions, which were imposed to force Libya to surrender two of its nationals for trial in Britain or the United States for their alleged involvement in the bombing of a Pan-Am plane, which killed 270 people.

According to the sources, Abdelmeguid will attempt to convince British officials to reconsider their position on the Lockerbie case, Map reported.

The Middle east peace process will also rank high on the agenda of the Arab league chief's talks in London where he will attend a conference on trade arbitration held by the Arab-British chamber.