WASHINGTON, March 11 (AFP) - The United States, Britain and Libya are close to reaching agreement on a multibillion-dollar compensation deal for the relatives of victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, senior U.S. and U.K. officials said Tuesday, March 11.

Senior diplomats from the three countries were meeting Tuesday in London to try to finalize the deal, which would see Libya freed from remaining U.N. sanctions and possibly dropped from the U.S. list of "state sponsors of terrorism, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

"They are close to a deal. It is in its very latest, final discussions," one official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

That official stressed, however, that any agreement reached at the London meeting would have to be signed by numerous top authorities in the three countries as well as run by the families of the victims.

"We describe this morning's meeting as a useful session. We are saying that we made further progress. But it is now for the delegations to report back to their capital cities to consult on the next step," a Foreign Office spokeswoman told AFP.

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the London talks had been "useful" and that "progress" towards a deal had been made.

"There was progress made. Whatever progress was made will have to be looked at," Boucher told a press conference.

A second senior U.S. official described the progress made as having been "good" and relating to Libya's accepting responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing, which killed a total of 270 people.

But the official told reporters it was "premature" to say that an agreement had been reached.

Neither Boucher nor the other officials would comment on the amount of money Libya was offering, but last year, lawyers for the families of the victims said Tripoli had agreed to a tentative offer of 2.7 billion dollars in compensation.

That offer called for the payment of four million dollars to each family once U.N. sanctions were lifted, and an additional four million would be paid once U.S. sanctions are lifted.

The final two million dollars would be paid out once the United States removes Libya from its list of "state sponsors of terrorism."

U.N. sanctions against Libya were suspended but not lifted after Tripoli handed over two suspects in the case who were tried by a Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands.