Libya has accepted responsibility for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing in a step toward closing the book on the mid-air explosion that killed 270 people and made it a pariah to much of the West.
In a letter to the UN Security Council, Libya said it "accepts responsibility for the actions of its officials" in the midair destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21st, 1988, above Lockerbie, Scotland, an admission it long resisted despite international condemnation and economic sanctions.
In the letter, whose delivery was delayed by the New York power outages, Libya renounced terrorism, pledged cooperation in criminal investigations and said it would pay compensation expected to total $2.7 billion, or up to $10 million for the 259 people on the plane and the 11 on the ground who died.
Assuming the payment is made - which a US official said could happen as early as Tuesday - the United States and Britain made clear that they regarded Libya as having met the conditions needed to permanently lift United Nations sanctions that were imposed on Libya in 1992.
But in a harshly worded statement, White House spokesman Mr Scott McClellan said restrictive US sanctions would stay in place and that Washington had concerns about Libya's suspected pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, its "destructive role" in regional conflicts in Africa and its "poor human rights record and lack of democratic institutions."
"The United States will intensify its efforts to end threatening elements of Libya's behavior, and US bilateral sanctions on Libya will remain in full force until Libya addresses these concerns," Mr McClellan said.
While ending UN sanctions may have some symbolic effect in helping Libya try to put the Lockerbie matter behind it, it has no practical implications because those sanctions were suspended in 1999 after Libya turned over two Libyan suspects Abdel Basset al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima for trial. Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence agent, was convicted of the crime in 2001 while Fahima was acquitted.
Libya delivered the letter despite signs France may block the Lockerbie compensation settlement to try to get more money for the 1989 downing of a French airliner, a development that has infuriated US officials and Lockerbie family members.