TRIPOLI, Aug 11 (AFP) - Libya has rebuffed a US call for compensation to be paid to the families of American victims of Berlin nightclub bombing 18 years ago, claiming that Washington should instead recompense the Libyan victims of a subsequent revenge air raid on Tripoli.
Germany and Libya reached agreement on Tuesday on compensating scores of people wounded in the deadly 1986 bombing
Libya's ambassador, Said Abdulaati, told AFP that Tripoli had agreed to pay a total of 35 million dollars (28.4 million euros) to non-US nationals who were hurt.
The bombing at the "La Belle" discotheque, which was frequented by US servicemen, in then West Berlin killed two GIs and a Turkish woman and wounded more than 250 people.
The United States welcomed Tuesday's announcement but reminded Tripoli that the families of the two American victims should receive compensation as well.
"Obviously, we would view it as a welcome step but we would also want to take the opportunity to reiterate our view that it is important that efforts are also made to resolve the claims of the American victims as well," deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.
"We've made it clear to the Libyans in numerous meetings... that this is an issue of importance to us, and we are following it closely, and we think it needs to be resolved," he told reporters.
After the bombing in Berlin, then US president Ronald Reagan accused Libya, which has never accepted blame, and retaliated by ordering airstrikes on its capital.
In 2001, a German court sentenced four people to up to 14 years in prison and confirmed that Libya was partially responsible. Those findings were reaffirmed by a tribunal in Berlin in June, some 18 years after the bombing.
Libya's Kadhafi Foundation, which negotiated the terms of Tuesday's compensation deal with Germany, demanded compensation from the United States for subsequent air strikes against the north African country.
The US strikes killed 41 people and wounded 226 others, "who undoubtedly deserve to be properly compensated and honored and those who carried (out) this action be brought to justice," said the foundation, which is chaired by Saif al-Islam, son of Libyan leader Moamar Kadhafi.
"It's absurd," foreign ministry spokesman Hassuna Al-Shauch told the official Jana news agency.
"It seems as if Mr Ereli were born after 1986 and has no knowledge of the war launched by Reagan on Libyan towns, which killed dozens of children, because of the attack on the Berlin disco.
"Therefore we think he (Ereli) should speak about compensation to the families of Libyan victims not Americans. The Libyan families claim compensation because they were subjected to (American) aggression," he added.
But the foreign ministry spokesman did not explicitly rule out the payment of compensation to families of the US victims of the Berlin attack, responsibility for which Tripoli has never formally accepted.