London, Sept 01: Libya has agreed to a compensation deal with the relatives of those killed in the bombing of a French airliner over Niger in 1989, Tripoli's London ambassador Mohammed al-Zuai told news agencies here today. The family representatives and Libya "arrived at a final accord satisfying both parties", Zuai said, adding that the deal was finalised during a telephone conversation between French President Jacques Chirac and Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.

"During the telephone conversation between Chirac and Kadhafi, they agreed on this issue and announced that the accord was satisfactory to both parties," Zuai added.
Families returned empty-handed from Tripoli last week, where they had flown on a French government aircraft hoping to strike a deal with Libya to pay additional compensation for the 1989 bombing of a UTA civilian airliner over Niger.

Family representatives returned to Tripoli on Saturday to resume compensation talks, the French foreign ministry said.

Libya recently agreed to pay $ 2.7 billion in compensation to the families of those killed when a pan am jet exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988, in an effort to get the international community to lift trade sanctions against Tripoli. But France has threatened to veto a British draft resolution lifting sanctions unless Tripoli agrees to pay the families of the 170 people who died in the bombing of the UTA DC10, also blamed on Libya, in light of the Lockerbie deal.

Bureau Report