UNITED NATIONS, September 12 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The Security Council on Friday lifted UN sanctions on Libya, clearing the way for payments to begin to the families of the victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing of Pan Am flight 103.

The vote was passed with 13 in favour and none against. The United States and France abstained.

"The United States continues to have serious concerns about other aspects of Libyan behavior," James Cunningham, the deputy US ambassador to the Council, said.

Earlier Friday, the Libyan official news agency reported that the compensation agreement between Libya and the French families of victims of the UTA DC-10 airliner shot down over Niger in 1989 will mean France drops all judicial claims against Libyans.

"The agreement signed between the families of the UTA plane and the Kadhafi Foundation entails the withdrawal of all formal complaints against Libya and Libyan citizens and the end of all civil and judicial processes linked to this affair in the French and international courts," JANA reported.

The agreement was signed in Tripoli between the families of the victims and the Gaddafi Foundation, headed by Seif el-Islam Gaddafi, the son of Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Six Libyans, including one of the Libyan leader's brothers-in-law charged in connection with the bombing of the aircraft which left 170 people dead, were sentenced to life in their absence in a French court in 1999.

“France no longer has any objection to the…lifting of sanctions against Libya," De Villepin

Meanwhile, the son of the Libyan leader who negotiated the deal said Friday that French companies with contracts in Libya will pay part of the agreed compensation to families of victims of the UTA airliner bombing.

"We are going to create a special fund managed by the two sides. It will be fed by contributions from French companies operating in Libya," Seif el-Islam told Le Figaro newspaper.

"This was not an agreement reached by the Libyan state, but by the charitable organization I head. Because it is a non-governmental organization it does not control public funds. It can only function with voluntary contributions. All French companies working in Libya should contribute to this fund," he said.

On Thursday relatives of the 170 people who were killed in the UTA crash announced a compensation agreement with Tripoli that is expected to open the way to the lifting of UN sanctions against the government of Moamer Gaddafi.

Gaddafi junior, who runs the Gaddafi Foundation charity, said the sum of money to be paid would be announced shortly, and that the compensation was part of a wider political agreement amounting to a "global settlement with France."

"The UTA case was closed for us several years ago. When France asked for it to be re-opened, we made several demands in return," he said.

The French government supported the demands of the UTA families for compensation equivalent to that negotiated last month by U.S. and Britain for the 1988 Lockerbie crash, and it threatened to veto the UN vote lifting sanctions unless Tripoli gave way.

Relatives of the 270 people who died in the Lockerbie bombing have been promised a total of 2.7-billion-dollars (2.4-billion-euro) in return for the removal of international sanctions. The UTA families received a fraction of that - 35 million dollars - after the 1999 Paris court case.

A vote in the UN Security Council was expected to go ahead later Friday.

In Paris, Francoise Rudetzki - president of the campaigning group SOS Attacks which helped the families in the negotiations - reacted indignantly to what she described as "new demands" from the Libyan government.

"I am worried because these unilateral statements completely contradict the agreement signed," she said.

She also described as "totally insufficient" the sum of one million dollars per family that some newspapers suggested Libya had agreed to pay. The exact payment will be set after further discussions over the next month, she said.

France has said Thursday it was prepared to vote to lift UN sanctions against Libya after the families of those killed in the 1989 bombing reached a compensation deal with Tripoli.

"Now that the families have arrived at an agreement, France naturally no longer has any objection to the UN Security Council voting as soon as possible on the lifting of sanctions against Libya," Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told a joint press conference with representatives of the families.

"I have just informed my American and British counterparts Colin Powell and Jack Straw," de Villepin added.