Libyan, American and British officials meet today at the UN

The first meeting bringing together US and Libyan officials since the severing of diplomatic relations between the two countries some 18 years ago will be held today at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York.

The meeting comes following the handing over of the two Libyans suspected of being involved in the explosion of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988 to a Scottish court in the Hague and the suspension of UN sanctions imposed on Libya.

The Secretary General of the UN Kofi Annan has called for convening of the said meeting, which is attended by the US ambassador to the UN Peter Burleigh and the Libyan representative to the UN Abu Zeid Dourda as well as the British representative Sir Jerome Greenstock. The participants in the meeting will discuss " means relating to lifting the sanctions'. The US adopts a position saying that it is early to move towards an official stand at the UN to " lift the sanctions" and it is necessary to wait until making sure of the co-operation of the Libyan authorities with the trial of the two suspected.

Libya, for its part stresses that there is no connection between lifting the sanctions and the trial and that it had committed itself to the UN Security Council resolutions and that the trial is a judicial matter that Libya has no links to. The UN Security council asked the Secretary general to present a report within 90 days from the date of handing over the two suspects to justice. This grace period ends with the beginning of next month July.