The deadline set for an additional compensation deal to be agreed between Tripoli and Paris for the 1989 UTA bombing, which killed 170 over Niger, passed on 11 October without any compensation offer from the Libyan government. However, Tripoli invited French negotiators to a further round of negotiations, a move described by a French spokesman as 'positive'. President Chirac, speaking during a state visit to Morocco, said he hoped that a deal would be reached soon. 'I do not want to imagine that these promises will not be adhered to,' he said. 'But, if by chance they were not met, this would no doubt have consequences on the relations between our two countries - I say this without aggression, but without weakness.'