'Libya should compensate victims of IRA violence'

A leading member of the Ulster Unionist Party has demanded that the Libyan government provide compensation to victims of IRA violence.

A leading member of the Ulster Unionist Party, Reg Empey, has demanded that the Libyan government provide compensation to victims of IRA violence.

Mr Empey said people injured by Libyan arms and explosives sold to the IRA should be compensated by Libyan president Moammar Gaddafi.

He has written to British Prime Minister Tony Blair asking him to press the Libyans for such compensation.

The north African nation has already agreed to provide compensation to the victims of two airline bombings in the late 1980s that were blamed on the Libyan intelligence agents, including the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.