A day before the United Nations secretary-general, Kofi Annan, goes to Libya, the Libyan news agency JANA has said the country's leader, Colonel Gaddafy, has no power to sign an agreement on handing over the two suspects in the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing.

The agency said Colonel Gaddafy did not have responsibility for foreign affairs.

Mr Annan, speaking in Tunisia, said he hoped to resolve the matter in his talks with Colonel Gaddafy.

But a UN spokesman Fred Eckhard warned earlier there was no guarantee of a breakthrough.

Libya has agreed in principle to hand the suspects over to a court in the Netherlands, but is seeking a number of clarifications.