U.S. in 'dialogue' with Libya

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration insists there has been "no change" in U.S. policy toward Libya -- blamed in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland -- but acknowledges talks with the nation after news reports of tensions easing between the two countries.

"The United States and the [United Kingdom] have conducted a dialogue with Libya," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Wednesday. "It doesn't represent any kind of new initiative or shift in our relationship. Libya remains on the list of state sponsors of terrorism."

Boucher said the goal of the United States was to "change Libyan behavior."

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said there was no deal or agreement with Libya that would result in its removal from the U.S. list of state terror sponsors.

"Libya knows what it needs to do and that is to follow the United Nations' policies about paying reparations to the victims of the attack at Lockerbie as well as to apologize for the attack, and that has not yet taken place," Fleischer said.

The adminstration's comments came the same day that Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi of Libya launched an appeal of his conviction at a court in the Netherlands.

CNN reported a meeting this month between U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns and a senior Libyan intelligence official. The two discussed the possibility that Libya would pay billions of dollars in compensation to families of Pan Am 103 victims.

For several years, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has tried to rehabilitate himself in the West and restore relations with the United States.

For example, Gadhafi kicked some Palestinian terrorist groups out of Libya, and he paid $25 million in compensation to victims of a French airliner that was downed over Africa in 1989, an act that a French court blamed on Libyan agents.

CNN National Security Correspondent David Ensor contributed to this report