A message from Chirac to Gaddafi to resume, develop relations

For the first time since several years, the French President Jacques Chirac sent a message to his Libyan counterpart Moammar Gaddafi in which he expressed France's readiness to rebuild relations with Libya on line with "an open and constructive mind."

This was expressed in the content of a message conveyed by a French team including the advisor of the French President for African affairs and the Presidential advisor Jan Francois.

The two men visited Tripoli and Sert on last Monday and Tuesday. The two French officials met with the Libyan President Moammar Gaddafi and the Foreign Minister Omar al-Muntasir and the director of the African affairs at the Libyan foreign ministry Ali al-Tureiki.

Well-informed Sources in Paris said that the visit was an occasion to reassert France's welcome to the African agreement signed in Sert as well the intention of France to develop positive and constructive relations with Libya. The sources said that France seeks "to develop its relations with Libya which is considered a big country of a considerable weight on the Arab and African arenas The sources added that Gaddafi had sent a message to Chirac on March 23 1996 in which he expressed his " commitment to build confidence relations between the two countries."

Meantime, the London-based al-Hayat daily said on today quoting Libyan sources that a French judicial team has visited Libya last week to present the files on compensations to be paid by the Libyan side to the relatives of victims of the French plane Yuta." The Libyan sources added that the visit falls in the course of ordinary French judicial measures which has completed the file and submitted it to the French foreign ministry, adding that the file is now at the hands of the Libyan authorities.