The former presidential candidate said that he had held several in-depth meetings with Libyan officials between February 24, 1992 -- when a Libyan naval attache first contacted him at a hotel in Athens -- and late March 1992.

At the time, former president George Bush refused to consider normalizing relations until Libya handed over two men accused in the 1988 bombing of PanAm Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people.

"The Libyans said that they would turn over the two PamAm bombing suspects ... in exchange for a commitment from the first Bush administration that preliminary discussions would begin within a reasonable period of time regarding the lifting of sanctions and eventual normalization of relations between our two nations," Hart wrote.

Hart said he held talks with the Libyans in Geneva and in a secret trip to Tripoli, where the logistical and legal issues of a handover were discussed.

Although he informed the previous Bush administration of every development, the White House refused, citing legal concerns about a proposal that the suspects be handed over in Switzerland.

Hart said he remained unclear about why the former president Bush refused the offer, but that the war in Iraq was not the reason for Libya's surprise announcement in December that it would abandon its programs to develop banned weapons and allow international inspections.

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