South African envoy to discuss Lockerbie crisis

A South African presidential envoy is visiting Libya for talks with Libyan officials on ways of defusing the Lockerbie crisis opposing Tripoli to the USA and Britain.

South African President Nelson Mandela had announced the trip last week in Cape Town after talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The British premier and President Mandela, who maintains close ties with Colonel Gaddafi, had reported "good progress" in talks over how to break the deadlock over the trial of the Libyans suspected of the bombing in 1989 of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which left 270 people dead.

Britain and the United States last year agreed to Libya's demand that the suspects should be tried in a neutral country, the Netherlands, before a panel of Scottish judges.Libya has however demanded a number of guarantees about the fate of the two men, including that they be jailed in Libya if convicted.