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France threatens to scuttle Lockerbie deal in new compensation-payment row

The gravestones of victims who died during the Lockerbie bombing are seen set against the Dumfriesshire hills in Lockerbie, Scotland. Lawyers and Libyan officials signed a deal on Wednesday to set up a fund for the families of the victims. PHOTO: REUTERS

France has threatened to veto a UN resolution lifting sanctions on Libya and destroy a complex deal under which Tripoli had agreed to accept responsibility for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and pay compensation to the victims' families, US officials said.

The officials, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, said on Thursday that France had told the US and Britain that it would use its veto at UN Security Council to block the resolution unless Libya boosts the amount of compensation it is paying for the 1989 bombing of a French UTA airliner.

"The threat has been made and it is still there," one official said. "They're trying to get a better deal for their own people by punishing the Pan Am 103 families and its absolutely outrageous."

"Blackmail is an ugly word, but that's what the French are doing," a second official said. "They are holding the deal hostage."

Those two officials and a third said French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin had conveyed Paris' position to US Secretary of State Colin Powell and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw during separate telephone calls late on Wednesday.

One US official said the conversation with Straw, which preceded the talk with Powell, had been particularly contentious with de Villepin insisting that France did not want to sabotage the Lockerbie deal but had little choice unless Libya paid more compensation to the UTA victims' families.

"It's my understanding that it got really heated," the official said of the de Villepin-Straw call.

Straw then called Powell who telephoned the French minister seeking clarification of Paris' position.

The French foreign ministry has refused to discuss a possible veto threat but has made clear it believes the UTA families should be compensated with the same amount the Lockerbie families are to receive.

The ministry said that de Villepin had been in touch with Tripoli, Washington and London to "remind them clearly of our position and our determination."

France "is not prepared to waver on this," spokeswoman Cecile Pozzo di Borgo said.

Meanwhile, Bush administration officials said on Thursday that even if the UN lifted sanctions against Libya the US would keep its own in place because of Libya's lethal weapons programs and other activities.

The UN sanctions were imposed on Libya after the downing of Pan Am Flight 103. Libya has satisfied two conditions set down by the UN for the lifting of sanctions and was expected to fulfill the third yesterday.
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