Despite pressure to lift sanctions against Libya, the United States and Britain apparently convinced Security Council members to delay action while they negotiated with Tripoli on outstanding demands.
The council met behind closed doors for more than two hours yesterday to hear US and British ambassadors describe their first talks with Libya's ambassador since Scottish judges convicted intelligence agent Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi in the December 1988 midair bombing of Pan American flight 103 over Scotland.
A second Libyan, Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima, was acquitted last month by the court, sitting in the Netherlands, on the airliner disaster over the town of Lockerbie, in which 270 people lost their lives, most of them Americans.
Council President Said Ben Mustapha of Tunisia said no action was taken as members hoped the dialogue between all the parties can progress quickly and lead to a consensus solution to this question of the definitive lifting of the sanctions.
The UN sanctions, including an air and arms embargo and a ban on some oil equipment, were imposed in 1992 and 1993 and suspended when Libya handed over the two men for trial in April 1999. Any move to reimpose them would fall short of the necessary support in the 15-member Security Council.
Reuters