WORLD IN BRIEF : BELGIUM : Libya Denies Pact to Free 4 Captives

Libya denied reports that it reached agreement with Belgium over the release of four Belgians held hostage by Libyan-influenced, radical Palestinians. The Libyan Embassy in Brussels said Tripoli has “no link with the ongoing negotiations.” The reports had said Brussels agreed to sign trade pacts with Libya and to free a jailed Palestinian. The Belgian hostages--Emmanuel Houtekins, his wife, Godelieve Kets, and their two teen-age children--were on a yacht in the Mediterranean in 1987 when they were seized by the Revolutionary Council of Fatah.