Officials from Britain, the United States and Libya are to meet in London on Thursday to discuss details on how to compensate the families of victims killed in the 1988 bombing of a US plane over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, British officials said Wednesday.
The meeting had originally been suggested on May 29, when a lawyer for the families announced that Libya was prepared to offer 2.7 billion U.S. dollars in compensation, a local report said.
A bomb exploded on board a Pan Am flight from Frankfurt to New York on December 21, 1988 as it was flying over Lockerbie, resulting in the deaths of 259 passengers and crew as well as another 11 people on the ground.
The United States and Britain have claimed that Libyan intelligence services were behind the attack, although Tripoli has repeatedly denied any involvement.
Two Libyan agents were accused of plotting the bombing and were put into trial last year in a court in the Netherlands, but presided over by Scottish judges. Only one of them was proved guilty and the man is now serving his sentence in a Scottish prison.
A series of economic sanctions was instituted against Libya after the bombing and Libya has since been trying to lift the embargoes, which have seriously damaged its economy.
(Xinhua News Agency June 6, 2002)
