Libya hesitant on new Iran sanctions at U.N.

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Libya said on Thursday it was uncomfortable with the idea of sanctions against Iran but vowed to be "constructive" in dealing with Tehran's nuclear program while chairing the U.N. Security Council this month.

Libya took over the rotating presidency of the council this week after decades as a pariah of the West. It was elected to the 15-nation body along with four other countries in October for 2008-2009 after Washington decided not to oppose it.

Among issues that may be discussed by the council this month are Western calls for a new round of sanctions against Iran, which has ignored repeated Security Council demands that it halt its nuclear enrichment program.

"We will try to be constructive," Libya's U.N. Ambassador Giadalla Ettalhi told a news conference in English when asked how he would treat the issue of Iran.

Speaking after the Security Council's first 2008 meeting, Ettalhi said his country's return to the council was significant for Tripoli, which in 1992 was hit with U.N. sanctions over the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

"We are back to normal from the perspective of other countries," he said.

Also joining the council for two years are Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Croatia and Vietnam.

The ambassador's comments came as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hosted Libya's foreign minister in Washington -- the first visit by Tripoli's top diplomat since 1972 -- in the latest sign of improving ties between the former enemies.