Paris: A lawyer for the relatives of those killed in a 1989 bombing of a French jet over West Africa said on September 11 they had reached a compensation deal with Libya, a move France said cleared the way for lifting UN sanctions against Tripoli.

"It's been a long fight, and today we can see a solution that allows a large number of the victims to bring it to an end and start the task of grieving," said lawyer Francis Szpiner.

"France naturally no longer has any objection to the UN Security Council voting as soon as possible on the lifting of sanctions against Libya," French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told reporters, speaking after Szpiner and other representatives of the families.

The announcement came on the eve of an expected vote in the UN Security Council on a resolution lifting sanctions against Libya in return for a $ 2.7-billion compensation deal for the families of the 270 people killed when a Pan Am jet blew up in December 1988 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Britain had originally planned to call for a vote on Tuesday, but gave in to pressure from France, which threatened to veto the resolution unless Libya offered a comparable compensation deal to the families of the 1989 attack.

The relatives of those killed when a DC-10 belonging to the French airliner UTA went down over the West African state of Niger in September 1989 initially received about $ 35 million dollars in compensation.

Agencies