PARIS, March 1: Libya will pay compensation to families of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing victims even if the former Libyan agent convicted of the attack is acquitted on appeal, a son of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi said on Thursday.

Comparing Tripoli’s situation to that of O.J. Simpson, who had to pay damages despite being cleared of his wife’s murder, Seif el Islam told a news conference in Paris there was no link between the agent’s criminal trial and the civil case.

His remarks were likely to upset relatives of the 270 victims, some of whom were due to meet US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns on Friday. Seif confirmed that Libyan government representatives were in talks with the relatives in the French capital but an agreement had not yet been reached and Libya was resisting what he said were US demands for four billion dollars.

“It is like O.J. Simpson. You have to compensate people, to pay money, whether you are guilty or not,” said Seif el Islam, who heads a Libyan charity.

Simpson, a former American football star, was acquitted of murdering his estranged wife and her friend in a celebrated trial in 1995. But two years later a civil court ordered him to pay 33.5 million dollars in compensation to the victims’ families.

“It is the law of the jungle,” Qaddafi’s son said. “It’s unfair but we have to be realistic and realize we are dealing with a superpower. It’s the United States not Malta.”

A Scottish court is expected to rule next month on an appeal by former Libyan agent Abdel Basset al-Megrahi against his murder conviction and life sentence imposed a year ago for the bombing of a US airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

But Seif el Islam stressed that Libya would pay up even if Megrahi, accused of planting a bomb in a suitcase on the Pan Am London-to-New York flight 103, was acquitted. “The talks are part of a civil case. There is no link with the criminal case. Even if Megrahi is proved innocent we will pay,” he said.

Lee Kreindler, lead counsel for the families, said he was prohibited by the court from discussing details of the case but the contacts had been going on since June.

“I think the discussions are moving in a positive direction,” he said from New York.

US “BLACKMAIL”: The United States said in January that talks with Libya could lead to a lifting of sanctions imposed by Washington. One of the conditions it has set for removing Libya from its list of “state sponsors of terrorism” is payment of compensation, but it insists it is not involved in the negotiations for payment. Kreindler also confirmed this view.