Talks to finalize Libyan compensation for 170 people killed in the 1989 bombing of a French UTA flight are snagged on procedural issues, families of victims and a source close to the talks said on Wednesday.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi trumpeted the deal in a speech on Sunday, saying it marked a new page in Tripoli's relations with the West. France said the deal was a precondition for it agreeing to the end of UN sanctions against Libya.
A source said no agreement had been signed because Libya was resisting a French demand for the compensation money to be paid into an escrow account like the one used for August's settlement of the 1989 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Scotland.
"It's getting to the silly stage where the French Foreign Ministry is insisting on a payment method that looks as identical as possible to the Lockerbie deal," said one source familiar with the negotiations, who requested anonymity.
"This would be complex and time-consuming and cannot be applied to a situation that is not at all the same."
Asked to comment whether it had voiced such demands to Tripoli, a French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said: "The negotiations are being handled by the families. We are not interfering in the negotiations. Any contacts between the [French foreign] minister [Dominique de Villepin] and his counterparts are of a purely political nature."
Britain moved to end UN sanctions permanently when Tripoli agreed to pay US$2.7 billion into an escrow account at the Bank for International Settlements and accepted responsibility for the midair explosion of a Boeing jumbo over Lockerbie.
Britain's UN ambassador said on Wednesday he hoped for a vote next week on lifting the sanctions.
"I would be disappointed if sometime next week we haven't actually moved to get that resolution in place," said Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, who holds the presidency of the UN Security Council. "As soon as that arrangement reaches a point where it's quite clear that we will have the support of all governments ... we'll go to a vote."
The Libyans say a private foundation run by Gaddafi's son is willing to pay extra money to the UTA victims' relatives as a goodwill gesture even though Tripoli paid out US$34 million in 1999 and Paris accepted it at the time as a final settlement.
Officials at the Gaddafi Foundation, the charity run by the son of Gaddafi, which is handling the negotiations, declined to comment on the talks but said they were "at a sensitive stage."
The French families are likely to get far less than the US$2.7 billion Libya agreed to pay the Lockerbie relatives. Sources familiar with the talks said the amount proffered was between US$500,000 and US$1 million per family.
The sources said Libyan officials were angry the French government was urging the families to insist on Lockerbie-style procedures in an apparent effort to save political face.
Families of victims said they were still waiting to hear from Tripoli when the accord could be signed.
"We've heard nothing from Tripoli. I find [this delay] astonishing given Gaddafi's announcement on Sunday," Guillaume Denoix de Saint Marc, whose father died in the bombing, said.
The new payment is due to be distributed among victims of 17 nationalities, including Africans, Americans, Britons and Italians who were on board the UTA plane.
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