Austria lifts freeze on Libyan central bank funds

(VIENNA) - Austria has unfrozen the Libyan central bank's funds here, following UN and EU decisions to lift sanctions against key Libyan institutions, the foreign ministry said Friday.

The UN Security Council and European Union both lifted sanctions on the Central Bank of Libya and Libyan Arab Foreign Bank over the past week, although Brussels maintained a "partial freeze" on the Libyan Investment Authority and Libya Africa Investment Portfolio.

"Almost all the funds" in Austrian banks that came from Libya belonged to the Libyan central bank, foreign ministry spokesman Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal noted, confirming the lifting of the freeze.

Around 1.2 billion euros ($1.56 billion) in Libyan assets were deposited in Austrian banks when Vienna announced in March it was freezing all funds from the country, according to the Austrian central bank.