Shake on it – just don't mention L-word

Published on Friday 10 July 2009 22:21

GORDON Brown met Libyan leader Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi for the first time yesterday, but sidestepped questions about the Lockerbie bomber.

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi is seeking to serve out his sentence abroad while awaiting the outcome of his court appeal, expected in the autumn.

In a 40-minute meeting yesterday, the Prime Minister told Col Gaddafi that Megrahi's release was a matter for the Scottish Government.

Megrahi, who is terminally ill with prostate cancer, is appealing against his conviction and seeking return to Libya. He is serving life in Greenock prison after being convicted of the 1988 jet bombing over Lockerbie that killed 270 people.

Mr Brown and Col Gaddafi met at the G8 summit in Italy, the latest demonstration that the West has brought Col Gaddafi "in from the cold" after he renounced weapons of mass destruction and admitted blame for Lockerbie.

That led Tony Blair, as prime minister, to fly to meet Col Gaddafi in his desert tent in Libya in 2004.

Mr Brown reiterated his "admiration and gratitude" for Col Gaddafi's "brave" decision to scrap Libya's weapons programmes in 2003.

The Prime Minister raised the case of Yvonne Fletcher, the police officer who was shot dead outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984. No-one has been convicted of murder, although the Libyan government has accepted its agents were responsible.

Mr Brown offered British help in developing Libya's healthcare system, an offer accepted by Col Gaddafi.

A Downing Street spokesman said: "There was agreement that the relationship between the UK and Libya was a strong relationship and had grown significantly since 2003 and that it would grow stronger still in the years to come."

The G8 summit, being held in the earthquake-hit Italian town of L'Aquila, closed yesterday with a 12.3 billion pledge to provide food aid for Africa.

The cash – 3bn more than expected – is intended to go towards agricultural projects designed to put Africa on the road towards food self-sufficiency, rather than on emergency aid during famines and disasters.

Mr Brown said the UK's contribution would be 1.1bn for agriculture and food security. It would help to tackle a "hunger emergency gripping over a billion people round the world".

Development charities welcomed the expanded package, which will be targeted at smallholders rather than major agribusiness companies, but warned that the money would not match the scale of need in the poor world, which has been hard hit by the global recession.

The G8 countries joined China and India to agree a deal on climate change. Average global temperatures should not be allowed to rise by more than 2C, although agreement on greenhouse emission cuts for non-G8 countries was put off until the Copenhagen climate change conference in December.

There was also agreement to hold a nuclear non-proliferation conference in Washington DC in the spring, at which reductions in Britain's Trident deterrent may be up for negotiation.

Read Ross Lydall's G8 analysis here