BRUSSELS, Aug 11 (AFP) - European Commission president Romano Prodi welcomed Wednesday a compensation deal reached between Germany and Libya over a Berlin nightclub bombing as clearing one major obstacle to Tripoli's ties with the EU.
But he said the fate of five Bulgarian nurses facing death by firing squad in Libya remained a major impediment to warming relations with the European Union.
"The president expresses his satisfaction on this settlement," a commission spokesman said after Germany and Libya reached an agreement to compensate scores of people wounded in the deadly 1986 bombing of La Belle discotheque.
"It is a step forward toward normal relations between the EU and Libya," Prodi said through the spokesman, Stefaan De Rynck.
The president of the EU executive hosted a landmark visit to Brussels by Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi in late April.
But relations were dealt a serious setback just a week later when a Libyan court passed death sentences against the Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor for deliberately spreading AIDS in a children's hospital.
Bulgaria is hoping to join the European Union in 2007 and the bloc has made clear its profound disquiet over the trial and the sentences.
"The condemnation of the death penalty stands and that in itself is something of an obstacle to the discussions with Libya," De Rynck said.