The British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair must press Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi on compensation for those killed or wounded by weapons his regime supplied to the IRA, the Prime Minister was urged today.
The Conservatives' Northern Ireland spokesman Mr David Liddington said Mr Blair should make the demand when he meets the Libyan leader as a result of the dramatic improvement in diplomatic relations between both countries.
Mr Liddington also said the Prime Minister should insist on a detailed inventory of the weapons given to the IRA.
The Tory spokesman told BBC Radio Ulster: "I welcome Libya's decision to rejoin the international community but I don't think there is any point in having improved relations with Libya if we are going to simply tiptoe around all the difficult questions.
"I think it would be quite right for the Prime Minister to be upfront and to put on some pressure both for compensation and in particular, in my view, for information about the arms trade to terrorists."
On Tuesday, Libyan Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdulrahman Shalgam became the first minister from his country to meet the Government since 1969.
In December an announcement by Colonel Gaddafi that Libya was getting rid of its weapons of mass destruction was received enthusiastically by Downing Street and by US President George W Bush's administration.
Diplomatic relations between London and Tripoli were severed in 1984 after Woman Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher was shot dead outside the Libyan Embassy.
Libya was also suspected of involvement in the bombing of a plane flying over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988.
PA