Switzerland makes offer in row with Libya, Gaddafi son says

Switzerland has made Libya an offer aimed at resolving a six-month row between the two countries, one of Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi's sons, Seif al-Islam, said on Saturday. "Switzerland really wants to find a solution" to the stand-off that erupted over the arrest of another of Gaddafi's sons in a Geneva hotel last July, Seif al-Islam told Swiss television.
Seif al-Islam, who did not say what the offer consisted of, met this week with Switzerland's foreign minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos. The meetings were the highest level encounters since Hannibal Gaddafi and his wife were arrested after two of their domestic staff said they had been beaten and mistreated by the couple.
Libya has been demanding a formal apology from Swiss authorities and sanctions against those who carried out the arrest. "It's the time to find a solution," said Seif al-Islam, in an interview published Saturday by Swiss daily Le Matin.
A decision on the diplomatic dispute will be made "by my father and his government. They will analyse the new Swiss offers," he said. "The Swiss in any case have recognised that the arrest in Geneva of my brother Hannibal was inadequate and useless. These were their words. They have admitted their mistakes," said Seif al-Islam.
"On our part, we have asked them to take measures so that this does not happen again. We also want punishment for those who were responsible," he said. Until now, contacts between Libya and Switzerland had largely been confined to diplomats, and this week's meetings in the snow-clad Alpine resort marked an escalation in attempts to resolve the dispute. Hannibal Gaddafi was eventually released and the complaint was dropped. A lawyer for the domestic workers said they had received compensation.
But Libya cancelled deliveries of oil in October, withdrew an estimated seven billion dollars (five billion euros) from Swiss banks, briefly detained Swiss company staff in Libya and halted all co-operation between the two countries.