Edgy Libya Stocks Up Against Likely Sanctions : Terrorism: A U.N. envoy is expected in Tripoli this weekend. He’s making a last-minute effort to get Moammar Kadafi to turn over two suspects in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

TRIPOLI, Libya —  The crowded main port here is busy these days as more than a dozen large freighters unload their cargoes of grain, animal feed and canned goods into waiting trucks. Offshore, another half-dozen freighters bob impatiently on their anchor chains in the brisk winter sea, waiting for a free berth.

The fear of U.S.-British military strikes against Libya is not as great here now as it was in November, after American and Scottish authorities announced indictments against two Libyan Arab Airlines employees, accused of planting explosives aboard Pan Am Flight 103, which blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland, in December, 1988, killing 270 people.

“At that time, they thought the Americans were coming up the beach,” said a Western diplomat here.

But the regime headed by enigmatic Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi is busy building up stocks as United Nations economic sanctions--demanded from the Security Council at the end of January by the United States, Britain and France--appear increasingly likely.

A U.N. envoy, bearing a letter from Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, is expected in the Libyan capital this weekend in a last-minute effort to persuade Kadafi to turn over the two accused men, Abdel Basset Ali Megrahi, 39, and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, 35. In his brief visit to Tripoli, U.N. Undersecretary for Security Council Affairs Vasiliy Safronchuk will seek an immediate reply from Kadafi so that he can return to New York next week for a scheduled debate on the sanctions before the Security Council.

Despite the mounting threat of international sanctions, which would begin with a ban on civil aviation traffic between Libya and most of the world, Libya so far has refused to give the suspects to British or American authorities. But, significantly, the Libyans have not closed the door completely on the idea of Megrahi and Fhimah standing trial for the Lockerbie crime before a neutral international body.

On Thursday, the Libyan government news agency quoted Kadafi as willing to present the men to one of three African and Islamic organizations for trial, provided “it is proven they are truly responsible for this crime.”

In the Jana agency news report, Kadafi specifically mentioned the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the African Development Bank and the Islamic Development Bank as possible sponsors for a neutral hearing. Kadafi also did not even rule out the possibility that the men might have been involved in the terrorist bombing, saying: “We don’t know at this time who are the real authors of this crime. As it concerns the Libyans, we ask that the Americans and British give us the evidence so we can judge them and pay the compensation.”

The Jan. 21 draft Security Council resolution proposing sanctions demanded that Libya pay compensation to the families of the victims of the Pan Am explosion and another 1988 bombing of a French UTA jetliner over Niger that killed 170 passengers and crew, also alleged to be the work of Libyan terrorist operatives.

In another effort to forestall sanctions, which include a ban on arms sales to Libya and a diminution of Western diplomatic representations here, Kadafi dispatched Libyan Foreign Minister Ibrahim Mohammed Bashari to Cairo to meet with Egyptian officials.

Diplomats here say the Libyans believe that they can influence the new U.N. secretary general, an Egyptian, by appealing to his former associates in the Egyptian government. Egypt, which enjoys a brisk trade with Libya and has several hundred thousand Egyptian nationals working there, is worried about the impact of the sanctions on its own economy.

As part of an effort to win support earlier this week, the Libyans invited dozens of Western reporters to visit Tripoli. Some were promised but never received an audience with Kadafi; others were told that Megrahi and Fhimah would be put “on trial” in front of Libyan investigative magistrate Ahmad Tahir Zawi.

What happened, instead, was the Libyan version of a White House photo opportunity.

The two men, reported dead by some Western intelligence sources, were marched past reporters but not permitted to answer questions. Zawi--who said Thursday he will resign from the case and predicted that move would end Tripoli’s official investigation of the matter--read a statement criticizing British and American authorities for not sharing evidence.

The U.S. State Department later described the episode as a “charade”--compounding Libyan frustrations in their effort to depict their country as a changed, terrorism-free land.

Libyan officials say they are frustrated because they feel Western leaders have ignored their efforts to reform, including renunciation of terrorism and the appointment of a “moderate” minister of external security--a post that in the past was believed by Western governments to be the seat of state-directed terrorism here.

The Libyan attempt to clean up the country’s image as a rogue, terrorist pariah state has won some converts among the small contingent of Western diplomats who remain here. They claim that the United States and Great Britain, caught up in the frenzy of revenge for Lockerbie, have been blind to the Libyan changes.