"He said that if the incident in his Manila apartment had not occurred, that there would have been several airline bombings within a two-week period," Mr. Parr testified.

But the government of Venezuela wants to extradite and retry him for the Cuban airline bombing.

The French have previously shied from punishing Libya for terrorist acts, but recent charges in another airline bombing have roused growing public anger there.

The sanctions were imposed against Libya because of its refusal to turn over suspects in two airline bombings.

A Greek court convicted Mr. Rashid in 1992 of the fatal airline bombing, and he was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

While supporting the United Nations sanctions imposed following airline bombings, Tunisia has been careful to maintain positive relations with its neighbor.

The Federal Security Service announced that an explosion at a bus stop in Moscow on the night the airliners crashed was a terrorist act, possibly related to the airline bombings, and not hooliganism as first reported.

Posada Carriles has always denied involvement in the airline bombing and the alleged plot against Castro in Panama, but has admitted to fighting for "freedom" in Cuba.

One bomb caused a fire in an airliner's baggage compartment, and that incident may have been the subject of the oblique reference in the latest letter to another airline bombing.