LONDON, 20 February 2004 — Libyan Prime Minister Shokri Ghanem denied his country’s guilt in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing which killed 270 people and said yesterday that Tripoli had only agreed to pay damages to victims in order to “buy peace”.

In comments which appear directly to contradict recent more conciliatory moves by Tripoli, Ghanem said Libya had refused to apologize for the attack because that was not part of the deal. Britain said it was seeking clarification of the remarks.

“We reached an agreement in which we feel that we bought peace,” Ghanem told BBC radio.

After years of negotiations, Libya agreed last year to pay $2.7 billion in compensation for Lockerbie victims, many of whom were Britons and Americans on Pan Am Flight 103 when it was blown up over the Scottish town.

In response, the United Nations Security Council voted in September to lift sanctions on Libya, first imposed in 1992.

Ghanem said the pressure of years of US and UN sanctions against Libya, and a desire to “put the whole case behind us” had forced Libya to agree to compensation.

Asked whether that meant Libya did not see the compensation payments as an admission of guilt for the bombing, he said: “I agree with that, and that is why I say we bought peace.”

The United States demanded Libya retract the comment. “We expect the Libyans to retract this statement,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

He said the prime minister’s comments were “impossible to reconcile” with the written statement made by Libya last year.

Britain played down his comments and said it saw no sign that Libya had changed tack.

“As far as the British government is concerned, the position of the Libyan government remains unchanged,” Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told reporters.

Straw, who held talks with his Libyan opposite number earlier this month, noted that Tripoli had told the United Nations it accepted responsibility for the actions of its officials with regard to Lockerbie.

Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spokesman added that the government wanted to “clarify” Ghanem’s remarks with Tripoli. “There does seem to be some sort of discrepancy,” he said.

Officials said Britain had no intention of changing its plans to continue working with Libya over its weapons of mass destruction with a view to normalizing relations.

Dr. Jim Swire, whose daughter died in the Lockerbie bombing, was also pragmatic about Ghanem’s comments.

“There is no information as to why he said that. You could see it in the context of the sanctions which have now been withdrawn on Libya,” he told Reuters.

“The case against the Libyans concerned itself only with the guilt of the bombers. We still have no information on whether the Libyan government is guilty or not.”

Ghanem also said he did not believe there was any evidence to show Libya was behind the 1984 fatal shooting of British policewoman Yvonne Fletcher outside its embassy in London.

UK officials say gunfire appeared to come from the embassy but no one has ever been arrested or charged.

Libya accepted “general responsibility” for the death of Fletcher in 1999 and agreed to pay compensation to her family.

Ghanem’s comments threaten to sour relations between Tripoli and Britain and the United States at a time when Libya had been making efforts to reintegrate into the international community.