UN chief to visit Libya; Gaddafi says Embargo lost credibility

United Nations sources said on Tuesday that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will meet on Saturday with Libyan officials to hold talks that are expected to center on handing over the two Libyans accused of involvement in the Lockerbie incident.

The UN officials who accompany Annan were quoted as saying they "do not know whether the UN chief will meet with Libyan Leader Col. Moammar Gaddafi." The officials added that Annan will head for Egypt by air and then by land to the Libyan border to meet with the Libyan officials. They gave no timetable for the date of the flight.

In New York, diplomats said on Sunday that Annan's decision to visit Libya is based on the intention of Gaddafi to hand over the two Libyans. Yet, sources at the UN refrained from announcing whether Annan had received any reply from the Libyan side.

Libya agreed to hand over the two men for trial in Holland, but it refused British and US demands that "if the two men are found guilty they have to serve their imprisonment sentence in Scotland."

Meanwhile, Libyan President Moammar Gaddafi has said the air embargo imposed on his country has "lost its credibility and collapsed in view of a huge world support for Libya in confronting the arbitrary embargo."

In a celebration held in Tripoli on Monday night to honor the visiting president of Djibouti, Hassan Joleid, Gaddafi added,"The US has no more logical and legal rights to allege that Libya is subject to UN sanctions."

He said it is important that world countries confront the unjust practices carried out by the US, which he said continue to "validate the law of force instead of validating the force of law."

He deplored the US indifference to the verdict of the International Court of Justice which entitled the court to reconsider the Lockerbie probe, since it is a legal case.