A Libyan Foreign Ministry high-ranking official said Thursday that Libya had never made any contact with Israel, denying recent reports that this North African country had tried to meet with Israeli officials.  

All the reports of secret meeting between Israeli and Libyan officials are "groundless and fabricated," the official Libyan News Agency quoted a deputy secretary in charge of media in the Ministry of Foreign Communication and International Cooperation as saying.

He said Libya's policy on Israel, which is "no reconciliation, no negotiation, no recognition," had never changed.

The report did not mention the name of the official.

At the beginning of this year, Israeli media had reported that a son of Libyan leader Muammar al- Qathafi had secretly met several times with Israeli officials in Europe to discuss reconciliation of the two nations. Libya had repeatedly denied these reports.

The Libyan government promised last January to compensate to all foreigners, including Jews, whose assets in Libya had been confiscated after Qathafi came to power in 1969 by staging a military coup.

There were about 500 Jews living in Libya at that time.

Last December, Libya announced that it would dismantle its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program and allow international inspections to all its facilities. The Israeli government welcomed that action.

(Xinhua News Agency April 2, 2004)