Lockerbie vote adjourned

FRENCH authorities on Monday were still threatening to veto a UN lifting of sanctions on Libya after talks in Tripoli failed to reach an agreement on a final settlement for the families of the 1989 bombing of a French airliner.

France's brinkmanship was put to the test as the families of the 170 killed in a 1989 bombing of a French UTA airliner over Niger came back empty-handed from Tripoli, where they had flown Thursday on a French government aircraft.

They had hoped to reach a deal with Libya for compensation similar to that made to the families of the victims of the 1988 bombing of a PanAm jet over Lockerbie, Scotland.

"There is no concrete result," Guillaume Denoix de Saint Marc, a spokesman for the relatives said on his return from Tripoli, adding he was "disappointed" at the outcome.

France has threatened to block a lifting of UN sanctions on Libya unless the country offers compensation to the victims of the UTA flight equivalent to the $2.7 billion it has paid out for families of the Lockerbie victims.

Britain came to a final agreement over compensation for Lockerbie earlier this month and had hoped to submit a resolution last week at the UN Security Council.

The British authorities on Friday deferred to a French request to adjourn the vote and French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin discussed the situation on Monday with his British counterpart Jack Straw.

The contents of the conversation was not made public but a diplomat in Paris said that London had "not set any deadline".

"Neither the United States nor Britain are pushing us, [as] it is not in their interest to seek a vote" on a resolution, the diplomat added.

The failure of the Tripoli talks has not dented the determination of the French authorities. An equitable settlement remains an essential condition for a lifting of the UN sanctions on Libya, one diplomat said on Monday.

France threw all its weight in the delicate balance as President Jacques Chirac called Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Sunday "to tell him how important it is to France that this particularly painful problem for the families of the victims is resolved," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Diplomats said this was a way for the French side "to press for the issue to be considered at the highest level" in Tripoli.

Libya initially termed the French demand "blackmail", but on Friday its ambassador to London, Mohamed Al-Zouai, said an improved compensation offer to the UTA families might be made, implying that a compromise might be reached.