by Afaf Geblawi
TRIPOLI, Sept 3 (AFP) - Libya signed a deal here Friday to pay 35 million dollars (about 28 million euros) in compensation to mainly German victims of a Berlin nightclub bombing 18 years ago, an AFP correspondent said.
The deal, which was drafted on August 10, was signed by the secretary general of Libya`s Kadhafi Foundation and a group of German lawyers led by Hans Joachim Ehrig.
The 1986 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.
Turkish and Libyan casualties of the blast are also to receive compensation under the deal but not the families of two American victims.
Washington has welcomed the announcement of the deal last month, but said its nationals` families too should be compensated.
Libya has insisted that it should first receive US compensation for subsequent retaliatory air strikes which killed 41 people and wounded 226 others.
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.
Another member of the survivors` legal team stressed that Germany, which acted as an advisor to the team and as an observer at the negotiations, was not a party to the private settlement.
He said the negotiations for the deal between February and September amounted to "a relatively short period to unravel such a complex issue."
The German lawyers praised the "essential and efficient role" of the Kadhafi Foundation, run by Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi`s son Saif Al-Islam, in hammering out the deal.
The German compensation deal is part of an increasingly successful campaign by Libya to end its pariah status.
The "La Belle" agreement is expected to pave the way for German leader visit Gerhard Schroeder to visit Tripoli in the autumn.
It is also expected to lift the last obstacle to a visit by French President Jacques Chirac who made it a condition out of solidarity with Berlin.
As part of its diplomatic sunshine campaign, Tripoli accepted civil responsibility in the bombing of a US airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in which 270 people died, and signed an accord with France to compensate relatives of the 170 victims of the bombing of a UTA DC-10 over Niger.
After it accepted responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing, British Prime Minister Tony Blair visited at the end of March, while his Italian counterpart made the trip last month.
Tripoli has also agreed to end its quest for weapons of mass destruction. It renewed diplomatic relations with Washington in June after a 24-year break.