DUBLIN: Politicians from Northern Ireland are holding talks in Libya on possible help for the reconciliation process in the province, a Libyan official said in statements published yesterday.

Deputy Foreign Minister Abdelati al-Obeidi told Oea newspaper that the delegation of lawmakers “came to propose that Libya back the reconciliation project and aid to development in Northern Ireland.”

The delegation met senior officials, including Foreign Minister Mussa Kussa, yesterday, state news agency JANA reported without referring to the issue of compensation.

Delegation members had said that their talks would also focus on compensation for victims of Irish Republican Army attacks during three decades of violence in Northern Ireland.

Libyan leader Muamar Kaddhafi’s regime is believed to have supplied the IRA with weapons and explosives in the 1980s for its fight against British rule in Northern Ireland.

On Saturday Democratic Unionist Party MP Jeffrey Donaldson, who is among the six-strong group, said that while discussions had already been held on the issue this would be the first face-to-face meeting with ministers in Tripoli.

He told the BBC before flying to Libya for the three-day visit that the families of some victims of IRA attacks were seeking individual compensation for their loss, but that the visit also had a wider aim.

“What we are also trying to achieve is the establishment of a peace and reconciliation fund that will help to promote peace in Northern Ireland and move us beyond the legacy of the conflict... and we believe the Libyans can contribute towards the establishment of such a fund. “We will be putting the case directly to the Libyan government,” he said.