France has threatened to hold up a compensation deal over the 1988 Lockerbie plane bombing, saying it would not agree to lifting UN sanctions on Libya without a payout deal for a 1989 French airliner attack.
Libya agreed yesterday to set up a $2.7 billion fund for families of victims of the midair attack over Lockerbie, Scotland, in a landmark deal which could thaw icy relations with the West and reopen the door to foreign investment.
The deal was seen triggering a Security Council vote as soon as early next week to permanently end UN sanctions on Libya.
But in a move bound to fan existing tensions between Paris and Washington, France, a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, said it first wanted more compensation for the 1989 bombing of a UTA airlines flight.
"France is delighted with the progress made in negotiations over compensation for families of Lockerbie bombing victims," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a faxed statement.
"In the interest of fairness, we would like a complementary settlement to be made very rapidly between Libya and eligible parties among families of the victims of the (1989) UTA flight.
"It is clear that such a solution is, for France, an essential condition for the definitive lifting of sanctions against Libya," the statement said.
Ministry officials would not say whether this meant France would go as far as to veto a UN vote to end sanctions against Tripoli, as it has been urged to do by a group representing families of the 170 victims of the 1989 UTA airlines attack.
But a US official in Washington said Paris had threatened in private to veto any resolution unless Tripoli boosted its compensation for the UTA victims.