Libya and the United States agreed on Thursday a comprehensive deal that Tripoli would compensate U.S. and Libyan victims in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, said reports reaching here from Tripoli.
The deal was signed by visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch, top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, and Libya's Foreign Ministry official Ahmed al-Fatouri.
All outstanding lawsuits against Tripoli by American victims of terrorism were settled on Thursday, paving the way for the full restoration of diplomatic relations between the two sides, said media reports.
The details of the deal had not been publicly announced, but some reports quoted a senior Libyan government official as saying that there were 26 pending lawsuits against Libya for the 1988 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people, and other attacks.
Libyans who were killed in 1986 when U.S. warplanes bombed Tripoli and Benghazi are also covered by the pay-out, other Libyan officials said.
Washington had no diplomatic relations with Tripoli from 1980. But in late 2003, Libya pledged to abandon its weapons of mass destruction programs, stop exporting terrorism and compensate the families of victims of the Lockerbie bombing and other attacks.
Afterwards, Libya was given a reprieve from the UN and Western sanctions. Thursday's signing completes a nearly five-year effort to rebuild ties between the U.S. and Libya, said media reports.
Source: Xinhua
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