ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (Reuters) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is "cautiously optimistic" after his talks with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on the handover of Libyan suspects in the Lockerbie bombing, the leader of the Arab League said on Monday.
The League's Secretary-General, Esmat Abdel-Meguid, said he had held talks with Annan in Abu Dhabi on the margins of the annual six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council summit, due to open late on Monday."Over Libya, he (Annan) was cautiously optimistic, so I think there are good chances that we will reach a solution acceptable to all parties," Meguid said.
Asked whether he could give a date for the handover of the two Libyan suspects in the 1988 bombing of a U.S. airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, Meguid said: "I don't know. But the sooner the better."
"I feel there is a desire on all sides to come to an understanding," he said, adding that the Arab League and Libya had originally put the idea to the United States and Britain of a trial on neutral territory, rather than in Scotland or the United States.