Libyans refuse more compensation for bombed French airliner

Families of victims of the 1989 bombing of a French airliner returned from Libya saying that negotiations had failed to win a compensation package on par with the €2.5bn Lockerbie settlement.

With a UN showdown brewing, foreign minister Dominique de Villepin met with representatives of the families immediately after their return to Paris yesterday and expressed his “full support for their action”, the ministry said in a statement.

Despite the breakdown in talks, “contacts are continuing with the Libyan party”, the ministry said.

French President Jacques Chirac called Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to convey “the importance that France attaches to the resolution of this problem”, the ministry’s statement said.

The French government has threatened to block a British proposal to lift UN sanctions against Libya, saying it wants a better financial deal for families of the 170 victims of the UTA flight.

France could use its veto on the Security Council to block the British proposal.

Paris has been embarrassed by the size of the Lockerbie agreement, in which every family member of the 270 victims is to receive between €4.3m and €8.7m.

By contrast, the families of victims of the ill-fated UTA flight shared about €30m in a 1999 settlement with Libya, with relatives of each victim receiving around €178,000.

After meeting with representatives of the group, Mr de Villepin contacted US Secretary of State Colin Powell to update him on “the state of the situation”, the ministry said, adding that the foreign minister would contact Foreign Secretary Jack Straw tomorrow.

A spokesman for the families, Guillaume Denoix de Saint Marc, said negotiations with members of Gadhafi’s government broke down because their Libyan counterparts refused to offer an “equitable solution”.

“It seemed to us that this blockage was because our counterparts did not have any margin of manoeuvre for taking a definite position. That’s the reason we came back to Paris,” he said, adding: “The ball is therefore in Libya’s camp.”

UN diplomats said last week they would give France more time to reach an agreement before voting to lift sanctions against Libya, though they stressed that France must act quickly.