US House panel seeks Libya payment on Pan Am deaths

WASHINGTON, June 20 (Reuters) A U S House of Representatives committee approved legislation today prohibiting diplomatic ties with Libya unless it continues paying restitution to families of those killed in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

U S lawmakers are hoping to keep the pressure on Libya to make a final 536 million dollar payment, out of a 2.7 billion dollar settlement, to families of the victims of the flight.

The House Appropriations Committee included the measure in a fiscal 2007 State Department spending bill that the full House is expected to pass this summer.

The amendment, by Rep. John Sweeney, a New York Republican, came after the Senate on June 8 unanimously approved a nonbinding resolution calling on President George W. Bush to hold off restoring diplomatic ties with Libya until questions about the Pan Am Flight 103 restitution were resolved.

A bomb aboard that airplane exploded, killing 270 people, including 189 Americans. The bomb was linked to Libyan agents.

On May 15, the Bush administration announced a 45-day process aimed at restoring full diplomatic ties with Tripoli after Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi scrapped his country's weapons of mass destruction program.

Sweeney's amendment would prohibit the U S from issuing diplomatic credentials to the Libyan government unless it cooperates in the monetary settlement.

REUTERS PDS BST0354