UNITED NATIONS, Aug 28: France plans to veto a British draft resolution on lifting UN sanctions on Libya if it comes to a vote on Friday, a French diplomat said.

“If a vote is called on Friday, we will have to vote negatively,” the diplomat said.

A British diplomat said on Wednesday there was a 50-50 chance Britain would ask for a vote on the resolution by the end of the week.

Faisal Mekdad, the deputy ambassador from Syria, which holds the rotating UN Security Council presidency in August, said if the British requested the vote the council would be ready to hold it.

France has threatened to veto the British draft resolution if Tripoli does not pay the victims of the 1989 bombing of a French UTA plane compensation in line with that paid to victims of the bombing over Lockerbie.

Libya has agreed to pay 2.7 billion dollars in compensation to the families of those killed when the Pan Am Boeing 747 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland on Dec 21, 1988.

BERLIN BOMBING: A charity foundation headed by Libyan leader Moamer Qadhafi’s son offered on Thursday to pay compensation to the relatives of three people killed in a 1986 nightclub bombing in Berlin.

The offer follows Tripoli’s overt attempts to return to the diplomatic fold, accepting responsibility for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing in the hope of pushing the UN Security Council to lift sanctions against it.

In a statement in Berlin, the Kadhafi Foundation said that its “gesture of humanity” over the nightclub attack was not an admission of responsibility.

The blast at the La Belle nightclub, popular with US servicemen, killed two American soldiers and a Turkish woman and wounded more than 250 people.

Fhami Najar, the Berlin coordinator for the foundation, which is headed by Mr Qadhafi’s son, Saif al Islam, confirmed the offer.

In its communique, the foundation said it would “seek talks with relatives in the near future in order to find a swift and uncomplicated solution to the problem”.

Mr Najar said the statement was a “first step” in the process.

The US State Department, citing lawyers for the Pan Am families, said that Libya’s promised compensation of 2.7 billion dollars for the Lockerbie disaster was transferred into a Swiss bank last week.

In return for the payout, Tripoli had negotiated for a series of diplomatic measures aimed at ending its status as a “supporter of terrorism”.

The German news magazine Der Spiegel reported recently that Libya was also thinking of offering compensation for the Berlin bombing.

The United States accused Libya of the nightclub attack shortly afterwards, and 10 days later bombed the cities of Tripoli and Benghazi, killing 40 people, including Mr Qadhafi’s young adopted daughter.

In Nov 2001, a German court sentenced two Palestinians, a German and a Libyan to long jail terms for the bombing after a trial lasting four years.

But the court also said the Libyan secret services were at least partly to blame and the German government subsequently asked Tripoli to acknowledge its part and compensate the victims. Three years ago, the Kadhafi Foundation mediated over the release of German hostages held on the Philippines’ Jolo Island, giving “development aid” to the suspected kidnappers, the Abu Sayyaf group.

Earlier this month, it claimed to have played a key role in the release of 14 European hostages held in the Sahara desert.

It said it had made contact with the extremist group holding them, passed a message to the European governments concerned and reduced the ransom that was being demanded.

The hostages, including nine Germans, returned home last week. Germany has refused to comment on how their release was brought about.

Britain has proposed a UN Security Council resolution on lifting sanctions against Libya, but no vote has been held yet. Germany is currently one of the 10 non-permanent members of the 15-strong Council.

The Kadhafi Foundation is also involved in Tripoli’s negotiations with the UTA victims’ families, who say a 1999 compensation payment of 33 million dollars was too small. —AFP

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