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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, February 27, 2004

US lifts travel ban on Libya

The United States on Thursday lifted the long-standing travel ban on US citizens to Libya after the country reversed its comments on the Lockerbie bombing and accepted responsibility for the 1988 attack.


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The United States on Thursday lifted the long-standing travel ban on US citizens to Libya after the country reversed its comments on the Lockerbie bombing and accepted responsibility for the 1988 attack.

"The United States will take steps to encourage Libya to continue on this path, including rescinding the restriction on the use of American passports for travel to Libya as well as other steps," national security spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement.

The move was taken after Libya retracted comments by its prime minister, Shokri Ghanem, that his country did not accept responsibility for the Lockerbie bomb which killed 270 people, mostly Americans.

"Libya's retraction yesterday clarified that their statement of Aug. 15, 2003 still stands," said McCormack.

Libya said on Wednesday that it regretted comments of Ghanem who angered the United States by claiming Libya's agreement to pay compensation to the victims of the Lockerbie bombing was to "buy peace" with the West.

The United States reacted immediately and demanded Libya clarify its stand and retract the comments.

Libya accepted responsibility for Lockerbie in a letter to the United Nations Security Council on Aug. 15, 2003 and agreed to pay2.7 billion US dollars to families of the victims of the tragedy.

Libya's announcement in December of plans to scrap its weapons of mass destruction program led to a rapprochement between Washington and Tripoli.


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