BERLIN, Sept 25 (AFP) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will go ahead with a visit to Libya, despite Tripoli's delay in paying millions of dollars of compensation to the victims of a Berlin nightclub bombing 18 years ago, officials said Saturday.
"The German government is firmly operating on the principle that Libya will fulfill its obligations," said a German government spokesman.
"At this time it is not considering canceling Gerhard Schroeder's visit scheduled for the October 15."
This week's issue of the newsmagazine Der Spiegel, due out on Monday, said the German government was considering calling off Schroeder's trip to Tripoli unless Libya swiftly pays the first part of the 35 million dollars (29 million euros) it promised to hand over by September 9.
Colonel Moamer Kadhafi's government signed an agreement on September 3 to compensate the victims of the 1986 bomb attack on the Berlin discotheque La Belle which was frequented by US servicemen. The blast killed two US soldiers and a Turkish woman and wounded more than 250 people.
The German foreign ministry twice last week summoned Libya's ambassador to Berlin, Said Abdoulaati, to ask for payment of 15 million dollars (12.2 million euros) pledged as the initial tranche of compensation.
Tripoli has blamed the delay on technical problems in transferring the funds, Der Spiegel reported.
Shortly after the accord was signed, one of Kadhafi's sons, Saif al-Islam, told Der Spiegel in an interview that the visit would mark a new chapter in relations between Germany and Libya.
The German government spokesman insisted Saturday that Tripoli must fulfil its engagements if it hopes to build a new German-Libyan relationship.
"That's the condition," he said.