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| Europe | |
| Sarkozy backs arms deal inquiry | |
| 2007-08-05 | |
| The French president has said he backs an inquiry to determine if an arms deal was offered to Libya in exchange for the release of six Bulgarian medics. The statement from Nicolas Sarkozy's office came after the French leader left for his summer holidays in the US. News of a contract between France and Libya for arms worth $405m (£199m) sparked suspicion in France. The deal was announced just one week after the six medics, imprisoned in Libya for eight years, were released. France's opposition socialist party has called for an inquiry to reveal the details of negotiations between the two countries. "The president of the republic favours the initiative of... calling for the creation of a parliamentary inquiry into recent developments between France and Libya," Mr Sarkozy's office said. It added it was confident the investigation would confirm all the statements made by the French authorities. France's defence minister said on Friday that the deal had been in the pipeline for months. Herve Morin added that since an arms embargo had been lifted France was one of several countries in discussions with Libya. "There are a lot of countries in talks with Tripoli: the Italians, the Russians, British," Mr Morin said. But Muammar Gaddafi's son has said that drawing the medics' case to a conclusion had paved the way for the deal. Mr Sarkozy had promised to visit Libya if the case of the medics, who insisted their confessions of deliberately infecting children with HIV were made after torture, was completely resolved. French officials insist that no arms agreements were signed during the visit of Mr Sarkozy to Tripoli the following day.
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| Posted by:lotp |
| #1 The statement from Nicolas Sarkozy's office came after the French leader left for his summer holidays in the US. Nicolas, you've become the president of France. What do you want to do now? "I'm going to Disney World!" |
| Posted by: whitecollar redneck 2007-08-05 07:38 |