August 25, 2003	Monday	Jumadi-us-Sani 26

PARIS, Aug 24: Relatives of French victims of a 1989 airliner bombing linked to Libya returned from Tripoli empty-handed on Sunday after pleading for compensation in line with the generous payments offered in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

Representatives of the families, whose weekend trip Paris hoped would break a deadlock at the United Nations threatening to hold up the Lockerbie deal, declined to give details of the talks before consultations with French officials.

But a source close to the talks said the families — who had already received a modest compensation from Libya — were asking for too much in supplementary payments after Tripoli agreed this month to far higher amounts for the Lockerbie victims.

“There was no progress made,” Guillaume Denoix de Saint Marc, spokesman for some families of victims from the mid-air explosion of a UTA airline jet over the West African state of Niger, told Reuters shortly after returning to Paris.

“The negotiations have failed,” said the source who asked not to be identified. “The reason was the exaggerated figures sought by the families. They wanted the equivalent of the Concorde crash compensation.”

Families of the 109 people who died in the fiery 2000 Air France Concorde crash in Paris won $120 million in compensation.

It was not clear if the talks with Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam would resume. Francoise Rudetzki, the head of an terrorism victims’ group who attended the talks, and the French Foreign Ministry declined comment.

France, with its Security Council veto, has threatened to block any lifting of UN sanctions on Libya — due to be voted on this week — if its citizens do not win more money.—Reuters

Our Paris correspondent adds: The Quai d’Orsay’s official spokesman says that “we’re opmitistic” over a settlement with regard to the UT772 attack of 1989, with another French diplomat adding that “we’re closer than ever to an accord with Libya, which could take place as early as this week.”

It’s an opinion shared by Tripoli’s ambassador to London, Mohammad al-Zouai, who says, “it looks possible we’ll come through with a humanitarian accord”.