Libya urges US to lift sanctions by May 12

Libya's prime minister said on Thursday if the United States does not lift sanctions by May 12, Libya will not be bound to pay the remaining $6 million promised to each family of victims killed on Pan Am Flight 103, The New York Times reported.

According to the newspaper, Libyan Prime Minister Shokri Ghanem said in an interview that the United States should reward Libya for scrapping its banned weapons programs by lifting the sanctions, which would allow American oil companies to return to Libya this spring and free $1 billion in assets that Libyan officials say are frozen in American banks.

"The agreement says that eight months after the signing, if American sanctions are not removed, then the additional $6 million for each family of victims will not be paid," Ghanem told the newspaper.

Last month, when Libya agreed to dismantle its weapons program, administration officials said American sanctions would not be lifted until Libya began to implement its pledge and took further actions leading to its no longer being identified as a state that sponsors terrorism, The Times said.

The families of the 270 people killed when Libyan terrorists blew up an airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, have been paid $4 million each under the agreement signed last September that led the United Nations to lift its sanctions.

In the settlement, Libya insisted on a stipulation that the families would not receive the full $10 million pledged unless the United States lifted sanctions and removed Libya from the list of states sponsoring terrorism within eight months, the newspaper said citing Libyan and Western officials.