THE US ADMINISTRATION changed its tune in its dispute with Libya over the Lockerbie bombing and said it was looking at how a Scottish court could sit in the Netherlands to try two Libyans suspected of blowing up a Pan Am airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988. Exploratory contacts with the Dutch government have already been made. Admitting that it was facing problems in ensuring compliance with the UN ban on flights in and out of Libya the US State Department announced on Tuesday that US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and National Security Advisor Sandy Berger proposed, during a conference call with the relatives of the victims, to change the location of the trial of the two suspects from either Britain or the US to the Hague, but with a Scottish court, judges and legal procedures. Britain, however, resisted the plan, saying it still wanted a trial in Scotland or the US. During a late night debate on the issue in the House of Commons, Foreign Office Junior Minister Tony Lloyd confirmed that Foreign Minister Robin Cook had had exchanges with his Libyan counterpart but said the idea of a third-country trial was fraught with complexities.
