LONDON: A British government minister is to visit Libya for the first time in nearly 20 years after what the UK Foreign Office on Friday night described as a “hard-headed assessment” that the country is turning its back on terrorism.

Talks in Tripoli next month between the British minister, Mike O’Brien, and Libyan officials, in addition to international terrorism, will cover compensation for the families of Lockerbie disaster victims, the killing of London policewoman Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984, and chemical weapons.

In London, the British foreign office suggested it was time for the Libyan leader, Colonel Qadhafi to come in from the cold.

Colonel Qadhafi was swift to condemn the September 11 attacks on the US and declared that Washington was justified in retaliating, there was no evidence of recent Libyan support for terrorism, and Libya had acknowledged responsibility and paid compensation over the killing of Miss Fletcher.

Libya had also “engaged positively” with the UK and the US in meeting UN requirements over Lockerbie, including paying compensation to the Lockerbie families.

However, it has yet to accept responsibility for the actions of Abdel Baset al Megrahi, the Libyan found guilty of the bombing.

American lawyers said Libya had offered US dollars 2.7 billion in compensation to relatives of those killed in the bombing. Some of the families rejected the offer because Libya had demanded the lifting of economic sanctions against it.

Though Libya subsequently denied the reports, the UK foreign office said last night there were indications that it might pay compensation to both the Lockerbie families and those of the victims of La Belle Disco in Berlin, bombed in 1986.

Britain broke off diplomatic relations with Libya after Miss Fletcher’s killing. They were resumed in 1998 after Tripoli accepted responsibility for her death and handed over the two Lockerbie suspects.

London’s Metropolitan police this year reopened the investigation into the murder of Yvonne Fletcher and flew to Libya to negotiate the extradition of a man suspected of the killing.

The foreign office said Mr O’Brien’s visit was not a make-or- break mission. However, officials made it clear they regarded it as potentially “hugely significant”.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.