France denies president involved in Libya arms deal

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PARIS, Aug 4 (Reuters): The French president was not directly involved in an arms deal with Libya this week, a senior executive at the European defence and aerospace group EADS and a presidential palace official said Saturday.
France has denied the sale of anti-tank missiles and radio systems to Libya was linked to the release of a group of foreign medics jailed for infecting children with HIV.
The medics were freed hours before French President Nicolas Sarkozy's visit to Tripoli last month.
"Commercial negotiations between MBDA and the Libyan authorities had been going on for a long time and we never intervened to speed up their conclusion," Claude Gueant, secretary general at the French presidential palace, told the French daily Le Figaro.
"I repeat this subject (the arms deal) has never been tackled during our discussions on the release of the Bulgarian nurses."
However, Gueant acknowledged the French president's visit could have created a "favourable climate" to conclude talks.
EADS said Friday its MBDA joint venture with Britain's BAE Systems and Italy's Finmeccanica had finalised an accord to sell Milan anti-tank missiles to Libya and it was in advanced talks on supplying radios.
The agreement would mark the first arms deal between Libya and a Western country since the 2004 lifting of an international weapons embargo. The deal has not yet been officially signed.
"Over the 18 months that have gone by, there has not been any direct intervention by the Elysee (the French presidential palace)," Marwan Lahoud, marketing and strategy chief at EADS, told French radio Europe 1 Saturday.