Libya is ready to improve compensation for the families of those killed in a 1989 French airliner bombing if Paris backs the end of UN sanctions against Libya, an adviser to Tripoli said on Saturday.
Saad Djebbar, a London-based lawyer who has worked with the Libyans over the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, said that an intervention by French President Jacques Chirac could break the deadlock.
"I am sure that if President Chirac picked up the phone today and told Colonel [Muammar] Qaddafi that France would not veto the resolution ... that this will pave the way for better conditions for the families," he said.
The French Foreign Ministry said representatives of the families left for Tripoli on Saturday for a fresh round of negotiations.
Veto-wielding France has said it cannot allow UN sanctions to be lifted until Libya increases the US$34 million compensation paid to families of the 170 people killed in the 1989 bombing of a French UTA airliner over Africa.
Britain moved to end UN sanctions on Libya over the Lockerbie bombing after Tripoli agreed this month to pay US$2.7 billion to families of the victims.
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