Gaddafi tell EU he wants to normalise relations

Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi has called European Commission President Romano Prodi to say he longs to normalise relations after agreeing to compensate the families of victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, the EU head office said today.

"President Gaddafi telephoned the (EU Commission) president last night and filled him in on the developments in the negotiations" about a £1.6bn (€2.3bn) compensation deal for the Lockerbie victims, EU spokesman Michael Mann said.

He said Gaddafi "reconfirmed his willingness to close the painful (Lockerbie) chapter ... and to try and regain Libya's place in the international community."

"Colonel Gaddafi said he was willing to do everything to respect the conditions established by the United Nations" to have international sanctions against his country, imposed in 1992, lifted, Mann said.

Prodi "took note of Libya's willingness to formalise and normalise, as quickly as possible, his relations with the European Union," Mann added.

For that to happen, Libya must join the EU's Mediterranean trade and aid programme that has sent billions of pounds in economic and other assistance to Israel and its Arab nations.

Libya has effectively boycotted the programme by refusing to sit down with Israeli participants at regular meetings of government officials and ministers from the EU and southern Mediterranean nations.

Britain has asked the United Nations to lift the sanctions after Libya formally accepted responsibility for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jetliner that killed 270 people.

In a letter to the UN Security Council last Friday, Libya agreed to set up a £1.6bn (€2.3bn) fund to compensate the victims, pledged to fight terrorism and agreed to co-operate with any further investigations into the bombing.