Rabat, Oct 12: French President Jacques Chirac today warned Libya to respect its commitment to compensate the relatives of 170 people killed in the 1989 bombing of a French passenger jet over North Africa. At a news conference on the last day of a visit to Morocco, Chirac said if Libya failed to meet its obligations, the consequences would be "without aggressivity" but also "without weakness".
"There would be bound to be consequences for relations between France and Libya," he said.
A deadline for a compensation agreement to be reached between Libya and relatives of the dead expires at midnight (2200 GMT) today.
The families last month rejected an offer by Libya of USD one million (850,000 Euros) in compensation per family as not enough.
Chirac said he did not want to prejudge the issue, adding that talks in Paris this weekend should lead to a commitment which had been clearly confirmed to him by Libyan leader Moamer Khadafi in two telephone conversations.
All those aboard a DC-10 airliner belonging to the French UTA airline died when it exploded on September 19, 1989 in the skies over Niger in West Africa. A trial in France 10 years later ended with six Libyans being sentenced in their absence to life imprisonment, one of them Khadafi's brother-in- law.
Bureau Report