LUXEMBOURG: European Union foreign ministers have agreed to lift sanctions and an arms embargo on Libya but have expressed concern regarding its human rights record and Tripoli's imposition of death sentences on Bulgarian and Palestinian medical workers accused of infecting children with HIV.
The decision to lift the arms embargo on Libya, which was imposed in 1986, is part of an EU policy of engagement with Tripoli in response to the country's decision last year to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction programmes.
Italy pressed for the ban to be lifted so that it could supply Libya with equipment to prevent illegal migration to Europe.
The ministers expressed "grave concern" over the plight of the Bulgarian and Palestinian medical workers who were arrested in 1999 and sentenced earlier this year. "The council considered that Libya, upon re-examination of existing evidence, may wish to conclude that justice be served by their early release," they said in a statement.
They also expressed concern about the human rights situation in Libya, adding that improvements were an essential element to the development of relations with the EU.
"Of immediate concern are serious impediments to the right of free speech and association, credible reports of torture of suspects and miscarriages of justice and inhuman conditions of detention."
The ministers postponed a decision on a proposal to lift the EU's arms embargo on China, which was imposed following the massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989.
The Dutch foreign minister, Mr Bernard Bot, said they needed more time to consider the issue but he made it clear that they were moving towards lifting the arms ban.
Mr Bot said the EU would look at ways of strengthening the code of conduct governing the EU's export of arms but he said lifting the arms embargo would not be made conditional on an improvement in China's human rights record. "There is no linkage between the lifting of the arms embargo and human rights," he said.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Ahern, said it was time to lift the arms embargo on China, despite enduring concerns over human rights. "The sanctions were imposed in the aftermath of Tiananmen Square, which was 15 years ago. Time has moved on. There is a better relationship. There is a better human rights situation," he said.
The ministers agreed to tighten sanctions against Burma's military regime in protest against the continued detention under house arrest of the opposition leader Ms Aung San Suu Kyi and the harassment of her political supporters.
All Burmese military officers above the rank of brigadier-general will now face a visa ban and European firms will be prohibited from making loans to certain Burmese state-owned enterprises.
Mr Ahern said the Government had not abandoned its target of increasing overseas development aid to 0.7 per cent of GDP but acknowledged that the goal might not be reached by 2007.
