Libyan Pm 'backtracks' Over Cooperation

Libya's prime minister, Shokri Ghanem, appeared to backtrack today over the country's admissions of responsibility for the murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher and the Lockerbie bombing.

In a switch from the more concilatory tone of the country's foreign minister, who visited London earlier this month, Dr Ghanem said that the police officer's death was "settled" and that Libya had paid compensation to the Lockerbie relatives to "buy peace" and an end to sanctions.

"We thought it was easier for us to buy peace and this is why we agreed to compensation," he told the BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"Therefore we said, 'Let us buy peace, let us put the whole case behind us and let us look forward'."

Last year, Libya paid about £2.2m to each of the families of the 270 people killed in the Lockerbie bombing, including 11 on the ground.

In 1999 it accepted "general responsibility" for the 1984 killing of WPC Fletcher when a marksman opened fire on dissidents protesting outside the Libyan embassy.

It agreed to pay compensation to her family but UK officials said Tripoli has refused to identify the killer, who is believed to have been smuggled out the next day under diplomatic immunity.

Dr Ghanem said today that he did not believe the shots had come from the embassy, but added that the issue had been settled to the satisfaction of both the Libyan and British governments.

That is at odds with a statement earlier this month from the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, that Britain and Libya had agreed to step up joint efforts to tackle unresolved issues over the murder.

After talks in London, his Libyan counterpart, Abdulrahman Shalgam, also conveyed a sense of reconciliation.

"We are going to work on this issue as we are going to work on other issues - with a spirit of co-operation, transparency and honesty," he said.

Tony Blair has agreed to meet the Libyan president, Muammar Gadafy, if Libya makes progress on solving the murder of WPC Fletcher and other bilateral issues.

Dr Ghanem's comments come as relations between Libya and the west, especially Britain, the United States and France, are improving after several decades of hostility.

The US president, George Bush, plans to lift travel restrictions on Libya today in the first tangible step toward easing US sanctions as a reward to Tripoli for scrapping its nuclear arms programmes. Easing the sanctions could allow US oil companies to resume activities in Libya, which they had to abandon when sanctions forced them to pull out in 1986.

But the new relations may be tested by Dr Ghanem's comments. It would be politically difficult for Mr Blair to visit Libya with no progress on identifying WPC Fletcher's killer.

Glen Smyth, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, said the prime minister's denial of Libyan responsibility for the killing was "absolute garbage".

"They did a fingertip search of the embassy, they knew exactly from where the weapon was fired and they have a pretty damn good idea who was responsible.

"This is the nation that engaged in mass murder that is now saying it didn't do what everyone knows it did and how on earth can we normalise relations with a state like that?

Professor Paul Wilkinson, of the department of international relations at St Andrews University, told the Press Assocation that Dr Ghanem's comments should come as no surprise.

"If you read between the lines of the comments that have been made by Libyan officials and Gadafy they have very carefully avoided making any proper apology," he said.

"The position is they want better trade relations with the outside world, that's why they agreed to compensation agreements with the Lockerbie victims' families. To 'buy peace' is exactly why they did it."