The United States has claimed that Libya has not met a UN requirement that it accept responsibility for the bomb that exploded on a Pan Am plane over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 and killed 270 people.
Responding to recent television interviews suggestingprogress toward a deal which would end U.N. sanctions againstLibya, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said: "Wehaven't seen at this point the acceptance of responsibilitythat would meet the standards of the UN resolution."
The main two conditions Libya must meet to end thesanctions is the statement of responsibility and a separatearrangement to compensate the families of the people who died.
"This is going ... to be closed very soon," Libyan leaderMuammar Gaddafi told Britain's Sky Television last Friday.
"Legally speaking, the responsibility is of various kinds. Thequestion regarding responsibility is actually over."
His son, Seif ul-Islam Gaddafi, told CNN in an interviewlast week: "We regard ourselves innocent and we had nothing todo with that tragedy. But because Libya is a responsible stateand we abide by our commitment ... we have to accept theoutcome of the trial."
A Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands found oneLibyan intelligence agent guilty of the bombing in 2001 after along trial. Another Libyan was acquitted.
Lawyers negotiating the compensation deal said last weekthey were making progress on setting up an escrow account intowhich Libya would deposit up to $2.7 billion - $10 million forthe relatives of each victim.
The United Nations imposed the sanctions, including a banon flights to Libya, in 1992 to force Libya to hand the menover for trial. When Libya complied it suspended the sanctions,but Libya wants them lifted completely.
The parents of one of the victims, Daniel and Susan Cohenof Cape May Courthouse, New Jersey, wrote to US Secretary ofState Colin Powell on Sunday.
"It is time - and past time - for someone of authority inthis Administration - you for example - to state publicly andforcefully that the Libyan game of denying responsibility whenrequired to accept responsibility, will not be tolerated by theUnited States," said the Cohens, who lost their 20-year-olddaughter Theodora in the explosion.
Boucher said: "There are no shortcuts. Bars are not beinglowered. Libya knows what it has to do, and that's meet therequirements of the UN resolution."