Annan to meet with Gaddafi on Saturday to settle Lockerbie incident

Following his meeting with Tunisian President Zein al-Abidin Bin Ali in Tunisia on Thursday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he will head for Libya on Saturday to meet with Libyan Leader Col. Moammar Gaddafi in an attempt to gain the latter's consent to hand over the two Libyans suspected of being involved in the Lockerbie incident.

Annan said, "Let's try together to settle the Lockerbie problem."

Diplomats said that Annan will head for Libya and is expected to arrive in the coastal city of Sert from Jarba in Tunisia after he got permission of the UN sanctions committee to travel by air.

Before leaving Algiers on Wednesday Annan said, "Our lawyers did an excellent job. A group of Libyan lawyers spent several weeks in New York and asked for explanations. They asked for explanations and we gave them everything."

A Libyan statement had denied that Gaddafi had changed his position towards the issue of Lockerbie.

Diplomats said the Libyan leader may "offer to Annan what he had refused to give to Washington and London."